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