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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 2018)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | CITY OF PORTLAND Commission, Position 2 Nick Fish, the incumbent, has been in City Council since 2008. Before that he repre- sented unions as an attorney in New York. On the council, he supported the paid sick leave ordinance and helped implement community ben- efits agreements on city con- struction projects, which put union members to work and Nick Fish gave opportunities to women and minorities. NOLC, CPBTC, AFSCME 189, IAFF 43, IBEW 48, IBT, IUPAT, LiUNA, LiUNA 483, PAT, PTE 17, SEIU 49, SEIU 503, UBC, UFCW 555 nickfishforport- land.com Julia DeGraw is a longtime organizer against Nestle and the NAFTA-modeled Trans- Pacific Partnership. She wants to replace Portland’s city-wide elections for City Council with district-based elections. She’s also calling for municipal broadband, and for the creation of a wage theft and worksite Julia DeGraw abuse hotline. AWPPW, PCCF- FAP, PCCFCE julia4pdx.com MORE: Read interviews with Fish and DeGraw at nwlaborpress.org/2018-oregon-primary Commission, Position 3 Loretta Smith, a former longtime aide to Senator Ron Wyden, has been Multnomah County Commis- sioner for the last eight years. There she’s proudest of having won increased funding for summer jobs pro- grams for minority youth. She has personal ties to several labor figures: She serves on a nonprofit work- force board alongside Northwest Oregon Labor Coun- cil chief Bob Tackett, and her chief of staff at the county is former Bureau of Labor and Industries leg- islative director Elizabeth Mazzara-Myers, who’s mar- ried to Building Trades chief Willy Myers. Campaign- ing for City Council, Smith is calling for all-union proj- ect labor agreements on all City construction projects. NOLC, CPBTC, Boilermakers 104, IBEW 48, Insu- lators 36, IUPAT, IW 29, OPCMIA 82, OPCMIA 555, Roofers 49, UA 290, UFCW 555 lorettaforportland.com Andrea Valderrama is a policy adviser to Mayor Ted Wheeler and former aide to commissioner Steve Novick. She’s also a member of the David Douglas School Board. AFSCME 189, PCCFFAP/PCCFCE (dual) valderrama4pdx.com Jo Ann Hardesty was a Democratic state represen- tative from 1995 to 2000 (under her then-name Jo Ann Bowman) and got high marks from labor. She also served as executive director of the nonprofit Ore- gon Action, as an aide to Multnomah County Com- missioner Beverly Stein, and as president of the NAACP. In 2002, she looked at conditions of nonunion janitors as a panelist on Portland Jobs with Justice’s Workers Rights Board. She’s also crossed labor on oc- casion: In 2003 she testified at City Council against a “responsible contractor” ordinance to track prevailing wage violations among city contractors, because it provided no assurance that people of color or women would be hired by the city for public works projects. Her campaign has focused on housing affordability, homelessness, and police accountability. ATU 757, ILWU, PAT, PCCFFAP/PCCFCE (dual) joannforportland.com Portland Children’s Levy SUPPORT renews an existing property tax levy that funds child abuse prevention, early education pro- grams, hunger relief, mentoring, and programs for foster kids. IAFF Local 43, IBEW 48, PAT, UFCW 555 voteyesforportlandschildren.org CITY OF SALEM City Council, Ward 8 Micki Varney, a salmon biologist and union steward with SEIU Local 503, is a graduate of the Oregon La- bor Candidate School. She’s challenging incumbent Jim Lewis IAFF 314 mickiforsalem.com May 4, 2018 | PAGE 7 IN THEIR OWN WORDS LORETTA SMITH Labor Press: What do you think is at stake for working people at City Council? I think it’s jobs. There's a lot of conversation everywhere I go about housing and homelessness and people talk about we need to have affordable and acceptable housing, but how we deal with affordability is having a good-paying job. And that goes as well for gentrification. If you have a good paying job. And that’s one of the things I like about labor: There are negotiated terms and people have a living wage and benefits. And I think that’s where we are missing a lot of things. JO ANN HARDESTY Labor Press: What would you like to see the City do about the crisis of affordable housing? We have to prioritize having housing at every income level in every neighborhood. Regardless of your income, if you work full-time, you should be able to afford to live in the city of Portland. Already I’ve had an impact on the City of Portland making permanent the relocation policy and removing the one-unit exemption. I’m a strong fan of rent control. We have to make sure that people who work full time can live and thrive in the City of Portland. ANDREA VALDERRAMA Labor Press: How would you be a better choice for working people than the other candidates? I think it matters to have someone who knows what it means to work hard and still barely make ends meet. That’s what a lot of Portlanders are facing. So we have to have leadership that not only has that experience but also knows how to be successful in City Hall, how to work well with colleagues and make sure we are passing legislation that when they go home they feel that sense of urgency that the rest of Portland is feeling, in not only our housing crisis but affordability and making sure that families can live here long term if that something that they want. We should be providing that opportunity for them. ONLINE EXTRA: See the full interviews at nwlaborpress.org/2018-oregon-primary
