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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (March 16, 2018)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 119, NUMBER 6 IN THIS ISSUE NO MORE ‘AMERICAN IDLE’ UAW is calling on Americans to buy America ... and sing about it. | Page 2 IRONWORKERS LOCAL 29 Union ironworkers erect new roller coaster at Oaks Park in record time. | Page 3 Meeting Notices p. 4 Oregon AFL-CIO endorsements p. 6 PORTLAND, OREGON MARCH 16, 2018 By Don McIntosh Four months after pro-union workers made a surprise visit to New Seasons Market head- quarters, CEO Wendy Collie is out, and so is the union-busting law firm the grocery chain brought in to talk to workers — for now at least. New Seasons announced Collie’s departure Feb. 6 as part of a “strategic shift in busi- ness direction” in which the company committed to refocus investment in its existing stores — and abandon its plans to op- erate in Northern California. That meant walking out on a lease in Hayes Valley district of San Francisco, scrapping plans for stores in Carmel and Emeryville, and even shutter- ing a brand-new New Seasons store in Sunnyvale that opened Photo by Andrew Gorry, courtesy of AFT-Oregon New Seasons CEO out, and union-busters out Outside the Multnomah Athletic Club, union protesters set up outside a March 1 business event featuring New Seasons board member Stephen Babson, managing director of the private equity firm Endeavour Capital. last August. The reasons for Collie’s exit are murky. Collie, a former ex- ecutive at Starbucks and the Kindercare daycare chain, was brought into New Seasons as CEO in 2012. In an exclusive interview she gave to Oregon Turn to Page 5 A UNION BRIDGE TO CITY HALL? SEIU Local 503 member Micki Varney, a union shop steward at the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, went through training at the union-sponsored Oregon Labor Candidates School. Now she’s trying to topple an incumbent Salem City Council member. TIRED OF WAITING FOR POLITICIANS TO DELIVER? Union members are running for office Even in today’s Gilded Age of moneyed influence in politics, when working people get seri- ous about democracy, boots on the ground can beat the billion- aires. That belief is what moti- vates the Oregon Labor Candi- dates School, which has a five-year track record of train- ing and assisting union mem- bers to run for public office. Twelve of the school’s alumni now hold elected office, in- cluding seats in the Oregon Legislature, city halls, and school boards. This May, an- other crop will appear on the primary ballot: ■ Dana Carstensen is a shop steward with Laborers Local 483 at the Oregon Zoo, and also works as a hazardous waste technician represented by AFSCME Local 3580. He’s running for a non- partisan seat on Metro, which runs the zoo. Metro District 4 runs north of TV Highway on the metro area’s outer West side. (danacarstensen.com) ■ Deb Patterson, a pastor at Smyrna United Church of Christ in Canby, is also a homecare worker and member of SEIU Local 503. She’s running in the Demo- cratic primary for a chance to challenge longtime Republican incumbent Jackie Winters in South Salem’s Senate District 10. (debpattersonor.org) ■ Rachel Prusak, a nurse practitioner, member of Oregon Nurses Associa- tion, and vice president of Nurses for Single Payer, is running unopposed in the Democratic primary to challenge incumbent Republican Julie Parrish in West Linn’s House District 37. (rachelforstaterep.com) ■ Michael Ellison, an electrician and member of IBEW Local 280, is running unopposed for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican incumbent Denyc Boles in Southeast Salem’s Republican-leaning House District 19. (mikeellisonfororegon.com) ■ Micki Varney, a salmon biologist and chief steward for SEIU Local 503 at the Turn to Page 6 Volunteer members of the union bargaining team were in high spirits March 2 after 18 months of negotiations produced a tentative deal for graduate teaching and research assistants at PSU. From left: Julia Dancis, Neal Kuper- man, Lyndsie Compton, and Ted Cooper. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING PSU grad student faculty ratify their first-ever union contract Graduate teaching and research assistants at Portland State Uni- versity (PSU) approved their first-ever union contract March 9. The three-year deal covers about 800 workers and is the culmination of a joint campaign by American Federation of Teachers (AFT)-Oregon and American Association of Uni- versity Professors. It doubles minimum work hours to 12 a week and provides a $184 sign- ing bonus and annual inflation- based raises of 1.5 to 3.5 per- cent. Currently, the median stipend for a PSU graduate assistant is $1,150 a month — before mandatory student fees (about $460 a term) and health insurance ($875 per term). Starting next academic year, the agreement commits the uni- versity to pay a share of the stu- dent fees, starting at 45 percent, rising to 80 percent in Fall 2020. Teaching and research assis- tants receive at least some tuition remission; the new contract sets a minimum of 9 credits. “We’re excited,” said bargain- ing team member Neal Kuper- man, a graduate teaching assistant in physics. “We also understand that this is not a one time deal.” Kuperman said grad assistants can’t afford to live in Portland on what they’re making, yet the uni- versity can’t function without them. “We are a foundational pillar of the university. Without grad as- sistants it would be nearly impos- sible to teach all the courses re- quired or do the research needed.” — Don McIntosh OREGON LEGISLATURE 2018 Session: Small gains, big misses Democratic majorities in the Oregon House and Sen- ate rolled up their sleeves in the short 2018 session to pass paid family leave, a Green Jobs cap-and-invest bill, and a school funding revenue-raiser that ends Oregon’s shameful rank as lowest-in-the-nation for corporate taxes. Just kidding. They did none of those things. House Democrats, led by Speaker Tina Kotek, did their part. But this year, like almost every year, the most impor- tant bills that might have benefited working people died in the majority-Demo- cratic Oregon Senate. Turn to Page 7
