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trolled Legislature repealed the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.