NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
...Burgerville
From Page 1
“It was a leftover cold piece
of chicken,” Ceballos says. A
Burgerville manager accused
her of stealing it, and told her
they had video evidence of her
handling the chicken patty. Ce-
ballos denies stealing it. She
says she threw away a patty she
believed belonged to a co-
worker who’d forgotten about it
and left work.
Portland’s labor market is
tight these days. The official un-
employment rate is down
around 4.0 percent, the lowest in
18 years. So it can’t be easy for
Burgerville to find workers
given that their starting wage is
minimum wage. Yet company
managers are terminating pro-
union employees at an impres-
sive clip.
Some restaurants have poli-
cies forbidding employees to eat
food they have’t paid for. But
it’s extremely common — and
one of the few perks of the low-
wage food service industry —
for employees to be allowed to
consume food that’s otherwise
going to waste. When your take-
home pay is $184 a week (half-
time hours at Portland’s mini-
mum wage), those extra calories
help you get through the week.
It’s a violation of federal la-
bor law for an employer to fire
a worker for their union sympa-
thies, but the federal agency that
enforces that law has an unim-
pressive record. Employees
need the equivalent of a smok-
ing gun to prove their union
sympathies are what they were
fired for. Even then it’s time-
consuming to get resolution —
and the law’s only remedy is re-
instatement with back pay (mi-
nus any wages the worker
earned in the meantime!)
Despite the firings, Burg-
erville Workers Union is contin-
uing its fight. It’s calling on the
public to boycott the company
until it deals with the union. The
boycott has been endorsed by 11
unions and by Oregon House
Speaker Tina Kotek.
UNION SUPPORTERS FIRED AT BURGERVILLE
Arsenio Arnold, fired from
the MLK store Jan. 30 (weeks
after becoming a father) for
smelling of cannabis, which, as
he informed a manager when
he was hired, he uses to
combat seizures.
Raymond Thomas
Cynthia Newton
Melissa Haggerty
Canaan Schlesinger, fired
from the MLK store Jan. 31 for
using a dollop of soft serve ice
cream instead of cream in his
free coffee. Managers said he
should have paid for the ice
cream.
Michelle Ceballos, fired from
the MLK Boulevard store Feb.
14 for theft of a chicken patty.
Ceballos denies the charge, and
says she threw away a patty
she believed had been left
behind by a co-worker.
James Coon
Chris Frost
Sydney Montanaro
Whether it’s a
problem with
your back,
your legs,
your hand,
or your head,
you can be
approved for
Social Security
Disability benefits.
820 SW Second Ave., Suite 200,
Portland, OR 97204
Scott Sell
Chris Thomas
www.tcnf.legal
Jordan Vaandering, fired
from the Vancouver Plaza store
January 2017 for failing to pay
for a bagel and cream cheese.
He says he was set up: An
assistant manager gave it to
him and didn’t ask payment.
March 2, 2018 | PAGE 3
POLITICS
How union members could
take charge of Democratic
and Republican parties
Oregonians: Are you a union
member and thinking about
running for office? Great. Call
the Oregon Labor Candidates
School and get trained to cam-
paign and win.
But if you don’t have that
kind of time, there’s another
way to push your party to
stand up for working people:
Become a Precinct Committee
Person (PCP) for the Demo-
cratic or Republican parties.
When a vacancy occurs in
the Oregon Legislature, it’s
filled by appointment by
county commissioners —
from a list drawn up by PCPs.
That happened six times just
this year. That means PCPs are
important.
But hardly anyone wants to
be one. PCPs are elected to
two-year terms for each politi-
cal precinct, and oftentimes
there’s no one running. If you
want to be a PCP, you’re al-
most guaranteed to win!
PCPs also attend state Cen-
tral Committee meetings, vote
on official party business, and
elect the county party leader-
ship and platform convention
delegates.
The only requirement is that
you be a registered member of
the party in your precinct for a
minimum of 180 days prior to
filing.
But you have to apply, and
the filing deadline is coming
up fast: March 6. To apply,
download and fill out the form
at http://bit.ly/2zU51AN and
turn it into your County elec-
tions office.