SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 119, NUMBER 16
IN THIS ISSUE
AN END TO NAFTA? Trump won gains in a tentative
new deal with Mexico, but it’s far from done. | Page 2
COMING SOON: THE MOXY Union pension funds will
finance a new downtown Portland hotel. | Page 4
Meeting Notices p.6 Labor Day at Oaks Park p.4-5
PORTLAND, OREGON
SEPTEMBER 7, 2018
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
NATIONAL
Teacher strike wave hits Washington
Trump denounces America’s top
labor leader ... on Labor Day
For 60,000 SW Washington
students, the first lesson of the
school year is about union power
By Don McIntosh
As many as 5,000 teachers went
out on strike the week before La-
bor Day at seven Southwest
Washington school districts —
districts where school superin-
tendents tried to hold on to funds
the Legislature had granted for
long-overdue teacher raises. In
each case, strikes were author-
ized by overwhelming majori-
ties — from 93 percent to as
high as 98.4 percent. The strikes
resulted in the complete closure
of whole school districts, post-
poning the school year’s start for
over 60,000 students.
As of mid-day Tuesday, the
strikes had ended in Vancouver,
Vancouver teachers held a mass rally Aug. 31 at district headquarters.
Ridgefield, and Hockinson, but
continued in East Vancouver’s
Evergreen School District and
the Washougal, Battle Ground,
and Longview school districts.
Camas School District teachers
had been set to begin a strike
Sept. 4, but settled before then.
Teachers are making no
apologies about the reason for
Turn to Page 12
UNION DEMOCRACY
Oregon Building Trades says it’s
ready to take it to next level
SUNRIVER, Oregon—Robert
Camarillo of Iron Workers Lo-
cal 29 was elected executive
secretary of the Oregon State
Building and Construction
Trades Council (OSBCTC).
The election took place at the
organization’s 57th Convention
held Aug. 22-24. Camarillo was
appointed to the post last May
following the resignation of Tim
Frew. The appointment was
made by business managers of
the affiliated union locals that
make up the Building Trades
Council.
Jim Anderson, business man-
ager of Operating Engineers Lo-
cal 701, was elected president of
the council. Anderson was ap-
pointed to the post shortly after
Camarillo took office. The pres-
ident at that time was Joe Bow-
ers, business manager of Iron
Workers Local 29. OSBCTC’s
constitution doesn’t allow for
top officers to be from the same
local, so Bowers stepped down.
The new top officers of the Oregon State Building Trades Council are Ex-
ecutive Secretary Robert Camarillo (left) and President Jim Anderson.
Both Camarillo and Ander-
son ran unopposed. Terms are
for three years.
The 69 convention delegates
took action on 11 resolutions
(see sidebar, Page 3), and heard
reports from National Associa-
tion of Building Trades Unions
president Sean McGarvey and
from newly-elected Washington
State Building Trades Council
executive secretary Mark Riker.
Representatives from the Port-
land Diamonds Project, Univer-
sity of Oregon, Jordan Cove and
Pacific Connector Pipeline
talked about billions of dollars
Turn to Page 3
On Labor Day — the one day a
year elected leaders of all stripes
traditionally say something nice
about working people and their
unions — Donald Trump fired
off a presidential tweet attacking
America’s top union official.
“Richard Trumka, the head of
the AFL-CIO, represented his
union poorly on television this
weekend,” Trump wrote. “Some
of the things he said were so
against the working men and
women of our country, and the
success of the U.S. itself, that it is
easy to see why unions are doing
so poorly. A Dem!”
The tweet was in reaction to an
appearance on Fox News Sunday
by Trumka, who is president of
the AFL-CIO, the federation that
most unions belong to. Invited to
comment on Trump’s trade nego-
tiations with Canada and Mexico,
Trumka said there’s still a lot of
work to do, because the language
of the deal hasn’t been drafted
yet. [See Page 2 for the latest on
Trump’s NAFTA talks.]
“We’ve been told for over 25
years, ‘Trust us, this agreement is
good for workers,’” Trumka said.
Trumka also knocked Trump
for failing to put forth his prom-
ised $1 trillion infrastructure plan,
and for overturning a regulation
that would have extended the
right to paid overtime to five mil-
lion people.
“When he was elected I said I
would call balls and strikes,”
Trumka said. “When he did
something that was good for
workers, we’d support him.
When he did something bad for
workers we would oppose him.
Unfortunately, to date, the things
that he’s done to hurt workers
outpace what he’s done to help
workers.”
SEE IT FOR YOURSELF
You can watch what AFL-CIO presi-
dent Trumka said about Trump on
Fox News at https://bit.ly/2LWkOEI
Federal judge strikes down Trump’s
anti-union executive orders
A federal judge on Aug. 25
struck down most of three exec-
utive orders Trump signed May
25 that aimed to strip federal
workers of their union rights.
Four federal employee unions
sued to stop the orders from tak-
ing effect, and both sides asked
the court for a quick decision.
“The orders plainly further the
president’s intention to restrict
the scope and effectiveness of
federal employees’ right to col-
lective bargaining,” wrote U.S.
District Court judge Ketanji
Jackson, “or clearly constrain
agency negotiators’ ability to
conduct collective bargaining
negotiations in good faith.
Therefore, this Court finds that
these provisions conflict with
congressional intent in a manner
that cannot be sustained.”
Among other things, the or-
ders decreed a sped-up timeline
for firing workers, severe limits
on the use of “official time” by
union stewards, and an end to
progressive discipline, seniority
rights and other key union con-
tract provisions.
“The judge rightly found the
president is not above the law
and cannot, through these bla-
tantly anti-union and anti-worker
executive orders, eviscerate em-
ployee rights and undermine the
collective bargaining process es-
tablished by Congress,” said
Tony Reardon, president of the
National Treasury Employees
Union in response.
The judge did leave intact
some portions of the executive
orders, including a direction to
agency chiefs to reject any
union proposal limiting their
discretion in firing a worker, and
recommending that agencies
impose contract proposals uni-
laterally if unions delay negoti-
ations.
