SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
IN THIS ISSUE
INFRASTRUCTURE BAIT AND SWITCH How Trump’s
$1.5 trillion plan shrank to just $200 billion. | Page 2
TEACHER CONTRACT BREAKTHROUGH For first time,
deal at Portland Public Schools limits class size | Page 5
Meeting Notices p. 4 Building Trades endorsements p. 5
VOLUME 119, NUMBER 4
PORTLAND, OREGON
FEBRUARY 16, 2018
WORKERS’ RIGHTS
Right-to-work nation?
Getting ready for Janus v AFSCME
By Don McIntosh
Ten days from now — Feb. 26
— the U.S. Supreme Court will
hear the most significant labor
law case in decades.
In Janus v. AFSCME, a
lawyer for an anti-union group
will argue that requiring union-
represented public employees to
pay anything at all to the union
would be an unconstitutional vi-
olation of their First Amend-
ment free speech rights — be-
cause that would be like making
them pay for political speech
they might disagree with.
The Court addressed that
same argument over 40 years
ago in a 1977 case called Abood
v. Detroit Board of Education
and came up with a compro-
mise: Union-represented work-
ers who choose not to join the
union don’t have to pay union
dues, which pay for political ex-
penses like lobbying, but they
can, if state law allows it, be re-
quired to pay a lesser amount
known as “fair share” fees —
fees that cover just the union’s
costs of negotiating contracts
and representing members.
Now, plaintiffs in the Janus
case want the Court to overturn
the Abood decision based on
the argument that everything a
union does — even grievance
handling — is political when
the employer is a government.
If a majority of the Court
agrees, it would result in an im-
mediate financial hit to public
sector unions in 23 states, in-
cluding Oregon, Washington,
and California. In effect, the
Court would be imposing the
so-called “right to work” policy
on state and local governments
nationwide.
The Janus case began with
Bruce Rauner, a private equity
fund manager with a net worth
estimated at close to a billion
dollars. Rauner, a Republican,
won the November 2014 elec-
tion for governor of Illinois.
Turn to Page 8
JOBS
UO’s new $1 billion Knight Science
Campus will be built under a PLA
The Oregon State Building and
Construction Trades Council
(OSBCTC) has signed a project
labor agreement (PLA) with
Hoffman Construction and the
University of Oregon for the new
Knight Campus for Accelerated
Scientific Impact. The $1 billion
facility will be constructed in
four phases over the next 10
years.
The Knight Campus will sup-
port more than 1,300 construc-
tion jobs during peak construc-
tion, and directly contribute
nearly $100 million in annual
economic activity to Oregon’s
economy, UO officials said in a
press release.
When fully operational, the
Knight Campus will support
more than 750 permanent jobs.
“The building trades has never
had a PLA with the Oregon Uni-
versity System,” said Tim Frew,
executive secretary of the OS-
BCTC. “This is a great opportu-
nity to show what we’re about,
and that we can be good partners
... and it will improve our market
share in Lane County.”
The Knight Campus will con-
sist of three new 70,000-square-
foot buildings immediately adja-
cent to UO’s current science
complex in Eugene. The campus
Turn to Page 5
Workers at the Convention Center Burgerville gather outside the store on day one of a three-day walkout.
Burgerville union calls for boycott
Amid firings of union support-
ers, House Speaker Tina Kotek
and 11 unions back the boycott
By Don McIntosh
Twenty-one months after
launching a union campaign at
Burgerville, the Burgerville
Workers Union has announced
a major escalation: A call for
consumers to boycott the re-
gional fast food chain until the
company negotiates with the
union. The announcement
came amid a three-day strike
that began Feb. 1 at the restau-
rant on MLK Blvd. in North-
east Portland, and spread to
restaurants at 25th and Powell
and 96th and Powell in South-
east Portland, and in Glad-
stone.
“We’re striking to protest il-
legal union busting, and be-
cause we want our union to be
recognized,” said Michelle Ce-
ballos, a night shift crew mem-
ber at the MLK Blvd. store.
“Without recognition, we’re
not going to get our demands
met.”
No law prevents Burgerville
from agreeing to meet with the
union (or obligates it to do so).
The company has opposed the
union effort and said it won’t
parley with the union unless
the union proves it has major-
ity support in a government-
administered election. The
company has 44 locations and
about 1,300 employees in Ore-
gon and Washington.
Turn to Page 7
SHAME ON BOEING. Operating Engineers Local 701 reports that Boe-
ing’s Gresham plant is using a nonunion contractor to move heavy ma-
chinery. In the early morning of Feb. 13, the union hoisted a banner out-
side the plant entrance with the message: “Shame on Boeing for hiring a
rat contractor.” The contractor is Integrity Machinery Moving of Portland
— founded in 2016 by Jeff Morgan, a former executive at union-signa-
tory Omega Morgan. Local 701 Business Manager Jim Anderson says In-
tegrity now is underbidding union contractors while employing
nonunion workers and paying them below area-standard wages and
benefits. Pictured above are organizers Scott Anderson and Tim Boyette.