NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
July 20, 2018 | PAGE 5
‘Building Trades champion’
Construction trades unions say
goodbye to retiring OHSU pres-
ident Joe Robertson.
The Columbia Pacific Build-
ing and Construction Trades
Council (CPBCTC) presented
outgoing Oregon Health &
Science University (OHSU)
president Dr. Joe Robertson
with a plaque July 10 in recog-
nition of his work transform-
ing Portland’s South Water-
front and Marquam Hill
campus — using union labor.
Under Robertson’s leader-
ship since 2006, OHSU expe-
rienced unprecedented growth.
It built the Center for Health &
Healing on the South Water-
front; the Collaborative Life
Sciences Building and Skour-
tes Tower; and the Portland
Aerial Tram, connecting
OHSU’s South Waterfront and
Marquam Hill campuses. It
also has broken ground on the
Knight Cancer Research
Building, the Center for Health
& Healing 2, and the Gary and
Christine Rood Family Pavil-
ion.
CPBCTC held its weekly
meeting at the Center for
Health & Healing South to
make the special presentation
to Robertson. Construction
workers on the project were
invited to attend. (See photos
right.)
Willy Myers, executive sec-
retary of the CPBCTC, told
the Labor Press that OHSU’s
more than $2.5 billion invest-
ment in construction has cre-
ated 20 million hours of work,
which has resulted in over
$700 million paid in wages,
about $200 million in pension
contributions, about $200 mil-
lion in health trust contribu-
tions, and almost $30 million
in apprenticeship training con-
tributions.
“This plaque is just a small
token of our appreciation for
what Dr. Robertson has done
for our members,” Meyers
said. “He’s a building trades
champion.”
Robertson officially retired
last October, shortly after be-
ing diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis. He agreed to stay on
as president while OHSU
searched for his successor. His
last day is July 31.
Robertson has worked at
OHSU for nearly 40 years. He
started as an ophthalmology
resident before joining the fac-
ulty. He was named director of
the Casey Eye Institute in
1997, then dean of the School
of Medicine in 2003. The
OHSU board of directors se-
lected him as president in
2006.
...The West Virginia teachers strike, firsthand
From Page 2
work, and nobody would get
on board with it.
What was the impact of the
strike? We shut down every
single county school for 11
days. That was the immediate
impact of it. But longer term,
the impact was a sense of soli-
darity, and a new willingness
of people to speak openly of
their anger and dissatisfaction
and their worries. The com-
mon theme was, “I can’t afford
to stay.” It’s bad enough when
you’re 10 years into your
teaching career, you’ve got a
masters degree and you’re
making $40,000. But what if
you’re head cook and you only
make $19,000. Those are
poverty wages.
From my experience in
West Virginia, as a cultural
thing, you don’t talk about stuff
you’re struggling with. You
might speak about that pri-
vately, but you don’t put that
out there. So to have people ac-
tually talk about having to
choose between medication
and food, having to put off
bills, and wear the same pair of
shoes until the bare feet were
sticking out of the bottom of it.
Those things weren’t really
commonly spoke of, especially
by people that work in the
school system. So it was pow-
erful for people to be able to
speak about that and not be
afraid of being ridiculed. It was
more like “I’m not alone. It’s
not a personal failure that I
can’t make ends meet. It’s a
systemic issue.”
How do you feel differently
about the union today than
you did a year ago? I think I
was like most people, even
though I was more active, I just
felt like they were kind of there
for insurance purposes, and if I
had an issue, I could get help
filing a grievance. And that
was it. And of course most
people I know that weren’t ac-
tive in the local felt that it
somehow magically worked
on its own. That you would
just pay your dues and some-
how five or eight people in
Charleston were going to mag-
ically make things better. So
seeing people actually want to
take an active role in the union
gives me hope that it can be
stronger, that we can actually
get things done, because peo-
ple are realizing that they are
the union, and that they are the
union bosses, that we pay our
dues and we pay those people’s
salaries to serve us.
People all over the country
were paying attention to the
West Virginia teachers strike.
What do you think was the
most important lesson you
learned that union members
elsewhere could benefit
from? That my labor belongs
to me. I always felt like that I
owed something to everybody.
That I owed it to my coworkers
to be there, my administrators,
my students, parents. And the
realization that withholding
your labor has true power for
change, and that it belongs to
me — that was and is still
amazing.
HEAR HER SPEAK
Monday, July 23, 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Portland Association of Teachers
office, 345 NE 8th Ave., Portland.
POLITICS
AFSCME Local 189 backs
Jo Ann Hardesty for
Portland City Council
Members of AFSCME Local
189, the largest union of City of
Portland employees, voted July
10 to endorse Jo Ann Hardesty
for Portland City Council Posi-
tion 3 at their July 10 general
membership meeting.
Local 189 earlier backed An-
drea Valderrama for that seat in
the May primary, but she placed
fourth in a field of six. Hardesty,
a former state legislator, came in
first with 44 percent of the vote,
followed by Loretta Smith, with
22 percent. Hardesty and Smith,
a Multnomah County commis-
sioner, will face each other in a
run-off on the Nov. 6 general
election. Both candidates have
union endorsements.
Portland City Council is a
non-partisan office. All four
City Council members and the
mayor are elected at-large in
Portland.