Northwest labor press., June 01, 2018, Image 1

SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 119, NUMBER 11
IN THIS ISSUE
NABISCO IMPLEMENTS ITS TERMS ON WORKERS
The snackmaker is leaving the union pension. | Page 5
OREGON 2018 PRIMARY RESULTS, UNION EDITION
Labor backed 55 candidates in 41 races. | Page 11
Meeting Notices p.6
Washington primary picks p.3
PORTLAND, OREGON
JOBS
Unions denounce move by Congress to
privatize Veterans Administration
Just before Memorial Day, Congress passed
a law that could lead to closure of veterans
hospitals and send more veterans to private
doctors for care. President Trump applauded
the law’s passage. The AFL-CIO called it “a
giant misstep toward privatization.”
Known as the VA Mission Act, the law ex-
tends and expands a three-year pilot program
called Veterans Choice that pays for veterans
to go to private health care providers instead
of veterans hospitals. American Federation of
Government Employees (AFGE), which rep-
resents 250,000 VA employees, says that will
result in more costly, less effective care, and
will bleed veterans hospitals of patients and
resources. The law also creates a commission
to look at closing VA facilities, and gives the
Secretary of Veterans Affairs the authority to
close facilities without consulting Congress.
The VA Choice program, begun in 2014 in
response to a media scandal about long wait
times at VA hospitals, has up to now been lim-
Turn to Page 4
JUNE 1, 2018
Portland City Council looks at
Uber driver standards
Portland City Council, in a unan-
imous 5-0 vote May 23, moved
forward on a plan to give drivers
for app-based transportation
companies like Uber and Lyft
greater say over their working
conditions.
The Oregon AFL-CIO and its
largest private-sector affiliate,
United Food and Commercial
Workers (UFCW) Local 555,
have been calling on City Coun-
cil to do something for the driv-
ers, who are currently in a legal
limbo somewhere between em-
ployees and independent con-
tractors.
But an hour before a hearing
on the City Council proposal, a
group of Lyft drivers held a rally
outside City Hall opposing it, and
then testified against it. That led
to several lively exchanges in
which City Commissioners Nick
Fish and Chloe Eudaly chal-
lenged the resolution’s critics,
and spoke in defense of union
principles.
The resolution in question, co-
sponsored by all five City Coun-
cil members, was part of a pack-
age of three items in which the
City Council is reviewing its
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UNION ORGANIZING
The Portland Veterans Hospital, above, could lose
patients to private clinics under a new law.
What did New Seasons pay union busters?
By Don McIntosh
Day after day, Isaac Byrd
checked the Department of La-
bor (DOL) web site, wondering
when the report would appear.
Byrd, 20, works at the New
Seasons Market at 3445 N.
Williams, where he supports a
union effort by employees. But
just after the campaign
launched publicly last Novem-
ber, anti-union consultants
from the firm Cruz & Associ-
ates swept through New Sea-
sons stores and led meetings
among employees for weeks.
When companies hire “union
avoidance consultants,” and
those consultants talk to em-
ployees, that triggers a require-
ment that employers and con-
sultants file disclosure forms
detailing the nature of the serv-
ice provided and how much the
company paid for it. That’s
what Byrd was searching for
on the DOL site.
Byrd wanted to know how
much New Seasons — which
touts itself as a socially respon-
At Outside In, an overwhelming
vote to unionize
New Seasons worker Isaac Byrd got tired of waiting for a federal disclosure
about union-buster payments to appear. So he called the union-buster.
sible, progressive grocer — paid
Cruz & Associates, the same
firm that fought union cam-
paigns at Trump Hotel Las Ve-
gas, American Apparel, and
Williams Sonoma. Based on
past filings, Byrd thought the
disclosures would come at the
beginning of April. But as days
passed and no report appeared
on the DOL web site, Byrd de-
cided to call the union-buster
himself and ask. After a couple
attempts, Byrd found himself on
the phone with Lupe Cruz, the
head of the firm. Identifying
himself as a New Seasons em-
ployee, Byrd asked when the
form would be coming. Lupe
Cruz, presumably thinking Byrd
was calling from the corporate
office, explained that the form
wouldn’t be filed until April
2019 — because New Seasons
waited until 2018 to pay the
firm.
Turn to Page 9
By Don McIntosh
The union campaign at Outside
In began with a stabbing.
Workers at the Portland
homeless youth non-profit had
been feeling unsafe, and some
complained to managers about a
lack of training or any plan for
what to do in the event of vio-
lence. Their complaints weren’t
acted on. Then at 10:35 a.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 7, two male staff
members were stabbed by an
Outside In client. The attacker
was arrested, and is being held
on felony assault charges. The
workers were taken by ambu-
lance to the hospital, and recov-
ered, but decided not to return to
work.
But other Outside In workers
decided it was time to take ac-
tion. As individuals, they’d had
no success getting managers to
deal with their concerns. What if
they formed a union?
The stabbing was the first vi-
olent incident in Outside In’s 50-
year history. But some said it
laid bare the gulf between front-
line staff and managers who
hadn’t taken safety seriously.
From its downtown headquar-
ters at 1132 SW 13th Avenue,
Outside In provides a range of
services to homeless youth,
many of whom are also dealing
with addiction and behavioral
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