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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 15, 2018)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | June 15, 2018 | PAGE 5 STARS OF THE PAINTERS AND FLOOR COVERERS UNIONS WORKERS RIGHTS The following members received bonus checks of $400, plus a set of Makita power tools valued at $500: FLOOR COVERERS: Jason Else, Congratulations to members of Painters Local 10 and Floor Coverers Local 1236 who received bonus awards at the STAR Awards banquet June 1 in Portland. The union workers qualified for the bonuses after completing seven classes and 24 hours of volun- tary skill-advancement training and safety courses over a 12- month period. The STAR pro- gram was initiated in 2004 when Painters and Allied Trades District Council No. 5 and the Signatory Painting Contractors Organization made a commitment to each other to field the best-trained work- force in the industry. This led to the creation of the Painters Union/Management Partner- ship, or PUMP. The program is funded by a cents-per-hour contribution negotiated in their collective bargaining agree- ment. Local 1236 started fund- ing its PUMP program in 2010. Bonus checks were awarded starting in 2012. Loren Harshman, Rodrigo Morales- Corona, Jonathan Doran, Jeremy Lewis, Daniel Ramirez, Donald Rusk, Brent Tompkins, Shawn Wilson, David Rowden, Dusty Hagan, and John Lawson. PAINTERS: Luis Alfaro Ramirez, Melissa Austin, Eraclio Benitez, Juan Bernal, Joe Bishop, Tim Bradfield, Gustavo Carbajal, John Daniels, Foo- Beng Foong, Jaime Garcia, Eileen Grigat, Alan Jackson, Jonathan Jaimez, Damon Keene, Jason Konst, Hernando Magallanes, Sean McCarthy, David Mercado, Alin Muresan, Daniel Norman, Rodney Patterson, Ronald Pearson, Kenneth Rheel, Atanacio Rodriguez, Steven Rodrigues, Moises Romero, Vince Spillman, Jeff Splichal, and Chris Vezaldenos. Four Painter apprentices were recognized for perfect at- tendance. They were Jermi Ali, Mike Antrim, James McClara and Andrea Corn- ing. Ali, Antrim and McClara had perfect attendance the pre- vious year. GOP lawmakers in Michigan repeal state prevailing wage Michigan’s Republican-con- trolled Legislature repealed the state’s prevailing wage law June 6 without any votes from De- mocrats. The 50-year-old law required that workers on state and local government construc- tion projects be paid the local prevailing wage — in order to prevent contractors from driving down wages to win bids. For years, Michigan’s prevailing wage foes were stymied by Re- publican Gov. Rick Snyder, who pledged to veto any repeal. But this time, a group funded by As- sociated Builders and Contrac- tors had gathered 382,700 signa- tures to qualify a repeal initiative. Under Michigan law, when legislators ratify a citizen initiative that’s headed for the ballot, it’s veto-proof. Michigan is the fifth GOP-led state to repeal a state prevailing wage law since 2015. A study- published this January found that Indiana’s 2015 prevailing wage repeal cut construction worker wages on average by 8.5 percent but had no impact on the average cost of school projects.
