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
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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.
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