SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 119, NUMBER 13
IN THIS ISSUE
NOT OUR OPINION What Justice Elena Kagan had to
say about the Janus decision. | Page 8
CONTRACTOR CRACKDOWN Surprise visits to 636
construction sites found 82 that were unlicensed. | Page 4
Meeting Notices p.6
Union election results p.9
PORTLAND, OREGON
July 6, 2018
Supreme Court delivers blow to union movement
Ruling 5-4 in Janus vs. AFSCME,
the court says union-represented
public employees don’t have to
pay anything to the union.
On June 27, five men in black
robes decided that America’s
public employees don’t have to
pay anything to the unions that
represent them — because such
a requirement violates workers’
First Amendment rights to free-
dom of speech. The ruling, in a
case called Janus v. AFSCME, is
the latest in a string of decisions
in which a 5-4 majority of Re-
publican U.S. Supreme Court
appointees has sided against
working people and unions.
The Janus ruling overturns 41
years of precedent. In 1977, the
Supreme Court ruled unani-
mously in a case called Abood v
Detroit Board of Education that
for public employees who chose
not to become union members,
requiring them to pay for union
Just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public employees who choose not to join a union cannot be
charged for the cost of collective bargaining, several hundred attended a “Union Strong” rally at Portland City Hall.
political activity would violate
their First Amendment rights,
but requiring them to pay a “fair
share” fee reimbursing union ex-
penses to negotiate and enforce
their contract would not.
Justice Samuel Alito, ap-
pointed to the Supreme Court
by George W. Bush, has been
questioning the Abood ruling
since 2012, seemingly inviting a
case that would challenge it and
give today’s court a chance to
overrule it. He got close in 2016
with the case Friedrichs v Cali-
fornia Teachers Association, but
the court deadlocked 4-4 on it af-
ter the death of Justice Antonin
Scalia. Last year’s confirmation
of Trump appointee Neil Gor-
such gave Alito the fifth vote.
Fittingly, Alito authored the
majority opinion in the Janus
case: “Under Illinois law, public
employees are forced to subsi-
dize a union, even if they choose
not to join and strongly object to
the positions the union takes in
collective bargaining and related
activities. We conclude that this
arrangement violates the free
speech rights of nonmembers by
compelling them to subsidize
private speech on matters of
substantial public concern.”
Turn to Page 8
TRADE
Untangling Trump’s trade policy
By Don McIntosh
A year and a half into his pres-
idency, it’s clear Donald Trump
is starkly different from the last
four presidents on trade policy.
He’s the first NAFTA opponent
elected president since George
Bush Senior signed NAFTA in
1992. And Trump has shown
more willingness than his pred-
ecessors to threaten and impose
tariffs on foreign imports.
But given Trump’s habit of
contradictory statements,
tweeted policy announcements
and reversals, and personal
spats with foreign heads of
state, it can be hard to keep up.
To make sense of it all, here’s a
list of what Trump has actually
done.
■ Steel and aluminum tariffs On
March 8, 2018, the Trump Administration
announced that a 25 percent tariff on
steel and a 10 percent tariff on
aluminum would start March 23. Then
on March 22, the Administration said the
tariffs would start for Japan, but hold off
til May 1 for others while the U.S.
negotiated tariff alternatives such as
quotas capping exports. After brief
negotiations, South Korea, Brazil, and
Argentina agreed to limit their steel
exports to the United States via quotas.
Korea’s quota amounts to a 30 percent
cut. Argentina’s quota caps its exports at
current levels. Australia got its tariffs
suspended indefinitely without any
concessions on its part. Following
another extension, the tariffs took effect
on the European Union, Mexico, and
Canada June 1. For perspective, tariffs on
steel and aluminum aren’t unusual.
President Obama imposed steel tariffs,
and so did George W. Bush, but they did
so with specific countries under “anti-
dumping” provisions. Trump’s steel tariffs
were imposed across the board under a
national security clause in a seldom-used
trade law. The Trade Expansion Act of
1962 allows the Secretary of Commerce
to investigate the impacts of any import
on national security — and gives the
president the power to adjust tariffs
accordingly. Trump ordered the
Commerce Department to investigate
steel and aluminum in April 2017. They
were the first such investigations to take
place since 2001. The report was
sobering. It found that 10 U.S. steel
furnaces have closed since 2000, and
today the United States is the world’s
largest importer of steel. The report also
found that there’s huge excess capacity in
the global steel market: China’s excess
capacity alone exceeds the entire
capacity of the U.S. steel industry. In
aluminum meanwhile, imports now
account for 90 percent of total U.S.
demand, up from 66 percent just six
years ago. From 2013 to 2016, six U.S.
smelters closed, and U.S. aluminum
industry employment fell by 58 percent.
■ Auto tariffs coming? On May 23,
2018, Trump directed the Commerce
Department to begin a similar investi-
gation into imports in the auto and auto
parts sector. That could lay the ground
work for later tariffs on foreign-made
SUVs, vans and light trucks, and
Turn to Page 3
At Providence Milwaukie hospital, organizing committee members Brea Un-
derhill, Monique Bunnell, and Hannah Armstrong celebrate the union win.
UNION ORGANIZING
At Providence Milwaukie hospital,
support workers go union
A group of 156 hospital sup-
port workers at Providence
Milwaukie Hospital voted 92-
54 to join Service Employees
International Union (SEIU)
Local 49 in ballots counted
June 14.
The new bargaining unit is
made up of workers in 26 job
categories, including CNAs,
cooks, phlebotomists and ER
techs. They voted to unionize
in order to win wage increases,
more affordable medical bene-
fits, and more say over condi-
tions in the workplace.
Local 49 represents similar
workers at more than a dozen
hospitals in Oregon and South-
west Washington.