NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
December 7, 2018 | PAGE 3
BUY UNION
UNION-MADE GIFT IDEAS
Buying any gifts this holiday sea-
son? If you buy union, you help
keep good jobs in the commu-
nity, and vote with your dollars
for enterprises that pay your fel-
low workers a living wage with
benefits. Union-made can be
hard to find. Here are some ideas.
BOOTS
Danner got its start in 1936 making boots for
loggers. Eighty years later, their boots are still
built to last, whether for work, hunting, hiking,
or around town. Danner makes about half its
products at its Northeast Portland factory,
where workers are represented by UFCW Local
555. Check the label: If the boots are U.S.-
made, they were made here with union labor.
SMART PHONE
The smart phone itself is most likely
assembled in China, but the workers who
maintain the cellular network will be
members of Communications Workers of
America (CWA) if you choose AT&T or
Cricket. When you visit a company-owned
AT&T store in Oregon and Southwest
Washington, you’re talking with a member
of CWA Local 7901. And union members
can get a 15-20 percent discount on some cell plans. To download a discount coupon,
visit unionplus.org/benefits/home/att-discounts.
WINE
BLANKETS
KITCHENWARE
Store shelves may be crowded with
foreign-made goods, but you can still
find gifts for the home cook that are
union-made in America. All Pyrex
products are made in Charleroi,
Pennsylvania by 310 members of
United Steelworkers (USW) Local
53G. “There’s a lot of pride in our
product,” says Local 53G president
Thomas Seal, a 34-year employee at
the plant. Other USW members in
Pennsylvania and New York make
All-Clad Stainless Steel Cookware
and Cutco cutlery. And U.S.-made
Fiesta brand dinnerware is made in
West Virginia by members of the
Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastic and
Allied Workers union.
Nothing says Pacific Northwest pride like a Pendleton Woolen Mills blanket.
Warm and durable, Pendleton blankets (but not apparel) are made in Washougal,
Washington, and Pendleton, Oregon, by 210 members of the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) Local 49. Their
union contract means wages of $15.94 to
$18.90 an hour, plus overtime after eight
hours, and health and pension benefits. You
can see how the blankets are made with free
tours at both locations.
MOVIES
Portland’s last unionized movie projectionist was laid
off by Cinema 21 in 1997. But most Hollywood films
themselves are still overwhelmingly union
productions, from the stars in SAG-AFTRA to the
gaffers in IATSE. Who wouldn’t love to get a gift card
to Regal Cinemas, or nonprofit Hollywood Theater, or
even Living Room Theaters across from the unionized
downtown Powell’s Books?
MUSIC
Oregon Ballet Theater, the
Portland Opera, the Oregon
Symphony: All of them employ
members of American Federation of
Musicians Local 99, IATSE Local 28
crews, and IATSE Local B-20
members, who work as ushers, ticket
takers and elevator operators. The
biggest employer of union musicians
is the Oregon Symphony, with 76
full-timers. Session players earn
$200 per two-hour appearance, plus
pension and healthcare
contributions.
UNION ORGANIZING
SHOP AND
SHIP IT UNION
A union for political campaign workers?
UNION RETAILERS
Campaign Workers Guild signs
with an Oregon state rep.
Fred Meyer and Powell’s,
not Walmart and Amazon
When you buy at Fred Meyer,
Portland’s only unionized general
retailer, the money you spend will
employ members of UFCW Local 555
(and Bakers Local 114, at Fred Meyer
bakery departments). And why shop
at Amazon when you could buy books
and gifts at Powell’s Books and
support Portland-area members of
ILWU Local 5.
UNION SHIPPERS
Cards and packages? Ship
union with USPS and UPS,
not with antiunion FedEx
U.S. Postal Service (USPS) is a
publicly-owned employer that
provides nearly half a million career
union jobs with benefits in every
community in America. UPS is the
single largest employer in the
Teamsters Union, with about 250,000
union-represented employees.
Unions are rare in the wine industry,
but Washington’s award-winning
Chateau Ste.
Michelle is an
exception. It
employs members
of United Farm
Workers in its
vineyards, and
members of
Teamsters Local 117
in the barrel room,
warehouse,
production,
shipping and
maintenance
departments at its
Woodinville facility.
Company labels include Columbia
Crest, Chateau Ste. Michelle
wines, Domaine Ste. Michelle,
and Snoqualmie, and others.
There’s a lot that’s unusual about
a union agreement reached Nov.
30 in Woodburn, Oregon. It’s the
first union contract covering po-
litical campaign workers in Ore-
gon. It covers just three workers.
And it was agreed to 10 days af-
ter they were laid off.
The contract is ostensibly be-
tween Oregon House Democrat
Teresa Alonso Leon and a new
union known as the Campaign
Workers Guild. But union mem-
ber Erin Delaney (Alonso Leon’s
campaign manager) said ulti-
mately it wasn’t Alonso Leon
they were bargaining with, but
FuturePAC, the political action
committee for Oregon House
Democrats. FuturePAC coordi-
nates big campaign contribu-
tions, recruits campaign staff and
matches them with candidates,
hires pollsters and consultants,
and draws up media plans.
Political campaign work is al-
most by definition seasonal.
Campaign workers
hire on in March of
an election year,
work crazy long
hours in a race to
the finish line, and
then, win or lose,
are laid off after
the election.
Should they
have a union?
Workers at a num-
ber of Democratic
campaigns around
the country seem to think so.
Since December 2017, Cam-
paign Workers Guild says it has
signed collective bargaining
agreements with state party or-
ganizations in Minnesota, North
Carolina, and Ohio, and with 23
individual political candidate
campaigns. Seattle’s Democratic
Congresswoman Pramila Jaya-
pal is one of them.
Campaign Workers Guild isn’t
affiliated with any other union,
but it has enjoyed some union
support. In Oregon,
the Alonso Leon
campaign bargain-
ing sessions took
place at the Wood-
burn offices of the
farmworker organi-
zation PCUN, ob-
served by activists
from Portland Jobs
with Justice, staff
from several unions
and by Communi-
cations Workers of
America Local 7901 President
Celeste Jones.
Campaign staff felt confident
approaching Teresa Alonso Leon
with the union idea because they
believed she would be support-
ive: A former member of Service
Employees International Union
Local 503, Alonso Leon is both
a big supporter of unions and a
big recipient of union backing.
Delaney hopes the agreement
they worked out over five bar-
gaining sessions will be a tem-
plate for other political cam-
paigns. Though she declined to
share details of the agreement,
Delaney says it provides for
severance equal to one month’s
pay and health coverage, plus
“win” bonuses. But more im-
portantly, Delaney says, it will
set some standards going for-
ward: most notably a clear set of
disciplinary and sexual harass-
ment policies, guaranteed days
off, and a cap of 55 hours a
week except for the final month
before the election. That last
item is crucial, Delaney said, be-
cause it’s common for campaign
staff to work as much as 80
hours a week.
“We hope it will be an indus-
try standard,” Delaney told the
Labor Press.
The agreement runs through
April 1, 2020, so it would cover
anyone hired when campaign
starts up again in March — as-
suming she runs again for re-
election.