NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | February 16, 2018 | PAGE 7
...Burgerville union calls for boycott
From Page 1
The union’s chief demands
are a $5 an hour raise and af-
fordable health benefits.
It also seeks the reinstatement
of as many as six pro-union
workers who were terminated by
the company on trivial pretexts.
The most recent was Canaan
Schlesinger, fired Jan. 31 from
the MLK store less than two
months after he was hired. The
official reason: Theft, for having
put a dollop of SoftServe ice
cream in his coffee instead of
cream. The real reason, he says:
“They identified me as a union
agitator.”
It wasn’t that he wore union
buttons like some of his co-
workers, Schlesinger said, but
that he asked questions and
showed independence. For in-
stance, asked by a manager to
sign an acknowledgement that
he’d read and would agree to the
rules in the employee handbook,
he declined to sign until after
he’d read the rules.
Schlesinger said his firing
came just one day after a pro-
union drive-through worker was
fired at the same store, just
weeks after becoming a father
— ostensibly for smelling of
cannabis, which he uses to treat
epilepsy. The recent firings of
two union supporters at the
Gladstone store contributed to
the decision of workers there to
join the strike.
Firing a worker for support-
ing a union is a violation of fed-
eral labor law, known as an “un-
fair labor practice.” At least 18
separate unfair labor practice
charges have been filed by the
union with the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) since
the campaign began. Six are still
pending investigation. Ten have
been withdrawn or dismissed,
including the charge concerning
Jordan Vaandering, who was
fired ostensibly for failing to pay
for a bagel.
In two cases, the NLRB found
the company broke the law, but
Burgerville settled the charges
and agreed to post a notice
pledging not to do the things it
was accused of doing.
In those cases, a manager at
the Vancouver Plaza location
told employees who were dis-
tributing “Burgerville Workers
Need a Raise!” leaflets outside
the store that they could not be
on the property; after that, all
employees received notice of a
rule prohibiting employees from
loitering on the property before
Iron Workers Local 29 president Shane Nehls joined a contingent of union
iron workers for a lunch hour strike solidarity picket Feb. 1. No cars were seen
to cross their picket line set up by the store’s drive-through entrance.
and after their work shifts. A
federal administrative law judge
found that both the rule, and the
manager’s conduct, broke fed-
eral labor law.
The union says as many as 42
workers at the four stores took
part in the strike.
Burgerville Workers Union is
affiliated with the Industrial
Workers of the World (IWW).
So that the minimum wage
workers could afford to take part
in the strike, the union spent
months fundraising to build a
strike fund. Not all workers
walked off the job at the four lo-
cations, and the stores remained
open, though business was
slower than normal during the
picketing.
The Burgerville Workers
Union campaign has been en-
dorsed by the state and local
AFL-CIO, and strike pickets at
both locations were joined by
contingents from several unions:
Members of Iron Workers Local
29 in hard hats and work clothes
FIRED FOR USING SOFTSERVE AS
CREAMER, OR FOR SUPPORTING THE
UNION? Union supporter Canaan
Schlesinger walked a strike picket
line Feb. 1 outside the Burgerville
store where he was fired the day be-
fore — ostensibly for using Soft-
Serve as creamer in his coffee.
blocked the drive-through during
lunch hour Feb. 1, and a similar
group of Carpenters Local 1503
showed up during dinner along
with a large inflatable pig. The
Feb. 2 Powell walkout on 25th
and Powell was joined by a pur-
ple-clad group from Service Em-
ployees International Union
(SEIU) Local 49, the health care
and building services union
whose headquarters is just across
the street.
“We’re down here to support
the workers who are trying to
make a fair wage,” said Iron
Worker Matt Momb.
Burgerville Workers Union re-
ports the boycott has so far been
endorsed by 11 local unions:
American Federation of Teach-
ers-Oregon, Amalgamated Tran-
sit Union Local 757, American
Postal Workers Union Local 128,
Carpenters Local 1503, Oregon
Federation of Nurses and Health
Professionals, Portland Associa-
tion of Teachers, SEIU Locals 49
and 503, United Food and Com-
mercial Workers Local 555,
American Association of Univer-
sity Professors at Portland State
University, and New Seasons
Workers Union.
Oregon House Speaker Tina
Kotek (D-Portland) has endorsed
the boycott. And State Rep.
Tawna Sanchez (D-Portland)
spoke at a Feb. 2 support rally,
after which she and Pastor Mark
Knutson of Augustana Lutheran
Church tried to present a letter to
managers at the MLK store, but
they refused to accept it.
“The fact of the matter is: Peo-
ple can’t afford to live here any
more if they can’t make a decent
wage,” Sanchez said. “Corpora-
tions have a responsibility to
make sure their workers can af-
ford to live a decent life, and it’s
not okay for them to keep poor
people poor.”
Inslee rejects Vancouver oil terminal
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee on
Jan. 29 rejected a proposed oil
shipping terminal at the Port of
Vancouver. The Tesoro Savage
project (also known as Vancou-
ver Energy) would have been
the largest oil terminal in North
America, shipping over 131 mil-
lion barrels of oil per year down
the Columbia River. The $210
million terminal was endorsed
by state building trades councils
in Washington and Oregon. The
trades had signed a letter of un-
derstanding for the terminal to
be built with 100 percent union
labor. It was projected to gener-
ate more than 320 full-time jobs
during construction.
Inslee said the state Energy
Facility Site Evaluation Council,
which earlier denied Tesoro the
necessary permits to build the
facility “has determined that it is
not possible to adequately miti-
gate the risks, or eliminate the
adverse impacts of the facility,
to an acceptable level. “When
weighing all of the factors con-
sidered against the need for and
potential benefits of the facility
at this location, I believe the
record reflects substantial evi-
dence that the project does not
meet the broad public interest
standard necessary for the
Council to recommend site cer-
tification.”
In its report, the Energy Facil-
ity Site Evaluation Council cited
unavoidable catastrophic risks
from earthquakes, oil spills in
the Columbia River and the Pa-
cific Ocean, and the threat of fire
or explosion at the facility.
In the November 2017 elec-
tion, voters elected a new com-
missioner to the Port of Vancou-
ver who opposed the oil
terminal. One of the commis-
sion’s first acts in 2018 was to
cancel the Port’s lease with Van-
couver Energy.