SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 119, NUMBER 14
IN THIS ISSUE
LESSONS OF THE WEST VIRGINIA TEACHER STRIKE
One of the strike’s leaders is in Portland July 23 | Page 2
TRUMP’S SUPREME COURT PICK Judge Brett
Kavanaugh has a history of anti-worker rulings. | Page 7
Meeting Notices p. 4
Unionization elections p. 3
PORTLAND, OREGON
JULY 20, 2018
OREGON
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Oregon public employee unions drop tax
transparency initiative as defensive fights loom
AFSCME members ratify first
contract at Volunteers of America
To unite business and labor
against anti-tax measures,
governor brokers a stand-down
on a union-backed initiative.
By Don McIntosh
Leaders of Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) Lo-
cal 503 and Oregon AFSCME
announced July 6 that they de-
cided to withdraw a ballot ini-
tiative that might have shed
light on how much Oregon’s
biggest corporations pay in
taxes. The announcement came
on the day signatures were due,
after their campaign had gath-
ered over 130,000 signatures.
The stand-down by the two
biggest state employee unions
followed a visit from Oregon
Gov. Kate Brown to Local 503
headquarters and weeks of con-
versations between Brown and
labor and business leaders.
The withdrawal puts Oregon
labor in an all-defense posture
on ballot measures this No-
vember, but it may also result
in the addition of new allies as
unions campaign to defeat sev-
eral initiatives. Money that
some businesses might have
spent opposing the tax trans-
parency initiative known as Ini-
tiative Petition (IP) 25 could in-
stead now go to fight anti-tax
initiatives IP 31 and 37.
To that end, top Nike lobbyist
(and Portland Public Schools
board chair) Julia Brim-Ed-
wards formed a new political
action committee June 29 called
the Common Good Fund,
which on July 3 reported a
$100,000 contribution from
Nike. Listed as president of the
fund is Portland real estate de-
veloper John Russell, who’s
also vice chair of the governor-
appointed body that directs the
investment of state funds like
the Oregon Public Employees
Retirement Fund. Russell, who
has been held up as an example
for paying his office building’s
union janitors and security
guards a dollar an hour above
the union scale, was also part of
the governor’s behind-the-
scenes discussions.
In a statement released by
Gov. Brown’s re-election cam-
paign, Russell said Brown
helped business and labor lead-
ers develop a new coalition fo-
cused on “the biggest challenge
this fall, a pair of unnecessary
and poorly written constitu-
tional amendments headed to
the ballot.”
IP 31, which turned in final
signatures June 27, is the latest
entry in a series of anti-democ-
ratic measures that attempt to
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WASHINGTON
A union guide to Washington’s August primary
Washington State Labor Coun-
cil, AFL-CIO, is a state-wide
federation representing over
500 local unions with a com-
bined membership of 400,000.
It promotes and defends the in-
terests of working Washingto-
nians in the State Capitol, and
issues ballot recommendations.
For this year’s elections, rank-
and-file delegates considered
endorsements May 19 in Seat-
tle and July 17-19 in We-
natchee. For Southwest Wash-
ington, the candidates they
recommend are in bold below:
CONGRESS
U.S. Senate Maria Cantwell has
voted in accord with the national AFL-
CIO’s recommendation 91 percent of the
time in her three six-year terms in office.
U.S. House, 3rd CD
Carolyn Long, a political science pro-
fessor at Washington State University
Vancouver, is one of three Democrats
WASHINGTON LEGISLATURE
17th Legislative District
House 1 — Tanisha Harris
House 2 — Damion Jiles
18th Legislative District
House 2 — Kathy Gillespie
19th Legislative District
running active campaigns to challenge
incumbent Republican Jaime Herrera
Beutler. The other two are David McDe-
vitt, a Vancouver businessman who has
self-funded his campaign with $700,000
in loans, and Dorothy Gasque, an Iraq
war veteran and former Bernie Sanders
national delegate. Beutler has voted in
accord with the national AFL-CIO’s rec-
ommendation just 17 percent of the
time in her four two-year terms in office.
STATE SUPREME COURT
Position 2 Susan Owens
Position 8 Steve Gonzalez
Position 9 Sheryl Gordon McCloud
House 1 — Erin Frasier
House 2 — Brian Blake
49th Legislative District
House 1 — Sharon Wylie
House 2 — Monica Stonier
If you’re a registered Wash-
ington voter, your ballot should
be mailed to you no later than
July 20 and must be post-
marked no later than election
day, Aug. 7, to be counted. In
Washington’s “top two” pri-
mary, voters affiliated with any
party or no party can partici-
pate, and the top two vote-get-
ters, regardless of their party
preference, appear on the No-
vember general election ballot.
About 70 workers at a pair of
publicly funded addiction treat-
ment centers ratified their first
union contract in a 41-1 vote
July 13. Kay Toran, CEO of
non-profit Volunteers of Amer-
ica (VOA) Oregon, had refused
to agree to even basic union con-
tract features during 18 months
of bargaining with Oregon AF-
SCME. But that hard-line stance
crumbled a week before VOA’s
annual fundraising gala, which
the union planned to picket. That
would have presented a dilemma
for gala guests, including many
elected leaders.The June 11 ten-
tative agreement also came three
weeks after union supporters oc-
cupied VOA offices in an act of
civil disobedience for which 10
were arrested.
The new contract provides an-
nual inflation-based cost-of-liv-
ing increases, if the budget per-
mits. It also gives 3 percent
wage increases for workers who
have work-related certifications,
and it provides holiday pay and
an easier path to benefit for relief
workers. VOA didn’t agree to a
formal wage scale, but did com-
mit to wage “ranges,” with in-
creased wages at the top and bot-
tom of the ranges. The contract
also includes standard union
contract features such as “just
cause” progressive discipline
procedures. It runs through No-
vember 2021.
UNION ORGANIZING
Workers vote on union at chain-
owned Clackamas pet clinic
After Mars Petcare swallows up
giant VCA chain, workers vote 54-
53 to join ILWU Local 5.
A group of 113 workers at the
Northwest’s biggest veterinary
hospital voted July 5 on whether
to unionize, but the results are
too close to call.
The vote to join International
Longshore and Warehouse
Union (ILWU) Local 5 was 54
to 53 at VCA Northwest Veteri-
nary Specialists, but the com-
pany challenged the right of four
workers to cast ballots, and it
could take several weeks for the
National Labor Relations Board
to decide on those challenges.
The Clackamas pet hospital,
located at 16756 S.E. 82nd
Drive, is part of the massive
800-hospital VCA chain. VCA
was a publicly traded corpora-
tion until last year, when it was
bought for $9.1 billion by an
even bigger company, Mars, Inc.
Mars — privately owned by
America’s third richest family
— is the famed and almost en-
tirely nonunion candy maker
that makes M&Ms, Skittles,
Dove Chocolates, and Mars,
Milky Way, Snickers, and Twix
chocolate bars. But it also has a
less well known petcare divi-
sion, which owns eight pet food
brands, including IAMS, Pedi-
gree, and Whiskas, plus three
other veterinary chains besides
VCA (Banfield Pet Hospital,
BluePearl, and Pet Partners).
Mars’ acquisition of VCA
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NOTICE!
Due to budget constraints, the Northwest Labor Press will
publish only one issue in August — but it’s our special
Labor Day edition. Look for it in your mailbox August 24!