SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 119, NUMBER 9 in tHis issue tAking on uBer AFL-CIO calls on Portland City Council to tackle driver exploitation. | Page 2 speciAl ed scHool Bus driVers At impAsse ATU 757 calls for arbitration, not strike, at PPS. | Page 3 meeting notices p.8 sam gillispie signs out p.12 PORTLAND, OREGON MAY 4, 2018 A union guide to May 15 Primary Election Endorsements of the oregon’s 2018 primAry election democrAtic primAry rAces – page 4 non-pArtisAn primAry rAces – pages 5-7 NW Oregon Labor Council it’s official: A Burgerville goes union CLACKAMAS COUNTY County Commissioner, Position 2 : P AUL S AVAS County Commissioner, Position 5 : S ONYA F ISCHER County Clerk : P AMELA W HITE County Judge : A NN L ININGER COLUMBIA COUNTY County Commissioner, Position 2 : H ENRY H EIMULLER METRO President : L YNN P ETERSON Commissioner, District 1 : S HIRLEY C RADDOCK Commissioner, District 2 : C HRISTINE L EWIS MULTNOMAH COUNTY County Chair : D EBORAH K AFOURY County Commissioner, District 2 : S USHEELA J AYAPAL County Auditor : J ENNIFER M C G UIRK Sheriff : M IKE R EECE CITY OF PORTLAND City Council, Position 2 : N ICK F ISH City Council, Position 3 : L ORETTA S MITH WASHINGTON COUNTY County Chair : K ATHRYN H ARRINGTON County Commissioner, District 2 : G REG M ALINOWSKI County Commissioner, District 4 : K IMBERLY C ULBERTSON Ballots must be submitted by 8 p.m. on May 15, 2018 Authorized and paid for by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council, 9955 SE Washington, St., Suite 305, Portland, OR 97216 The 92nd and Powell Burgerville may be the nation’s first officially unionized fast food union. Workers at the Burgerville restaurant at SE 92nd and Pow- ell Boulevard already knew they were union. Now a federal agency has verified it. In ballots counted April 23 by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the workers demonstrated their choice to join Burgerville Workers Union in a 18-to-4 vote. That means Burgerville is now legally obli- gated to recognize the union and bargain in good faith with re- spect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employ- ment — for the 30 employees of Burgerville worker Emmett Schlenz walks out of the 92nd and Powell store with the ballot result: A 18-4 vote for the first-ever official fast food union. that store. “Our employees have spo- ken, we hear them, and we sup- port their decision,” said Beth Brewer, Burgerville’s senior vice president of operations — Turn to Page 11 VoA presents an anti-union 'final offer' CEO Kay Toran proposes no raises and a "right to work" rule that would undermine the union. They’re on the front lines help- ing Oregonians recover from se- rious addictions, but a group of about 70 Portland workers at non-profit Volunteers of Amer- ica (VOA) can’t seem to get a first union contract. They say that’s because VOA’s long-time CEO Kay Toran has refused — during 15 months of negotiations — to agree to a basic union contract provision known as “union se- curity.” Union security is a re- quirement that all union-repre- sented workers join the union or at least pay a ‘fair share’ of the union’s costs to negotiate and enforce their contract. In other words, Toran is insisting that VOA be an “open shop” in which workers wouldn’t have to join or support the union. VOA employees Butch Nicklin (left) and Kristina Downes work at the men’s residential alcohol and drug treatment center. Workers there voted to union- ize in September 2016 and still don’t have a first union contract. That’s despite the fact that the workers demonstrated over- whelming support for unioniz- ing when they voted 46 to 3 to join Oregon AFSCME on Sept. 28, 2016. The workers staff a pair of Medicaid-funded resi- dential alcohol and drug treat- ment facilities in Portland where up to 87 addicts at a time spend six months in court-ordered treatment. Many staff members are themselves recovering ad- dicts and clients of the non- Turn to Page 16