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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2019)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | January 18, 2019 | PAGE 3 ...Plasterers From Page 2 needed funds the most. “The actuaries called it a per- fect storm,” says Trudy Horn, president of the Masonry Indus- try Trust Administration (MITA). Based in Portland, MITA admin- isters benefit funds for the trowel trades, including Operative Plas- terers and Cement Masons and Bricklayers and Allied Crafts. Trustees took swift action to slow the bleeding — eliminating death benefits and subsidized early retirement benefits, cutting the benefit accrual rate, and in- creasing employer contribution rates. But because of the contin- ued recession, it wasn’t enough: The plan’s funding level contin- ued to decline, reaching 47 per- cent by 2017. Today, it continues to earn respectable investment re- turns on its roughly $20 million in assets, but must draw down those assets in order to pay over $2 million in benefits a year. In late 2014, Congress passed the Multiemployer Pension Re- form Act (MPRA), a law allow- ing pension trustees to save plans from insolvency by reducing ben- efits up to a certain amount. With actuaries projecting the Plasterers Local 82 Pension Plan would be insolvent in 16 years, Plasterers Local 82 and its 17 contributing employers in the Associated Wall and Ceiling Contractors of Ore- Raymond Thomas gon and Southwest Washington decided to pursue that option, and worked together to craft a solu- tion members could live with. They proposed a 22 percent re- duction for active participants, and 31 percent for all others, in- cluding inactive workers and re- tirees already drawing a pension. [Except that under MPRA, pen- sion benefits can’t be cut at all for those 80 and older, and cuts phase out for those between 75 and 80.] Trustees made the cuts deeper for retirees in part for reasons of eq- uity: It wouldn’t be fair to expect current workers to contribute more to fund more generous ben- efits than they’ll ever receive. The U.S. Treasury Department approved the cuts proposal Nov. 8, and sent ballots to all partici- pants Nov. 21. The vote was 42 in favor of the cut, and 48 against, but under MPRA, trustee cut pro- posals are implemented unless a majority of participants vote to reject them. Sickles said a num- ber of members told him they were voting yes by not casting ballots. The cuts now will take ef- fect Feb. 1. MITA bookkeeper Kirt Haneberg called the cuts both tragic and necessary, but said there are reasons for optimism. Construction continues to boom, and work hours are up, which benefits the pension plan’s bot- tom line. And there are signs Lo- cal 82 is improving its market share: Its international union has lately assigned organizers to sup- port efforts to bring in non-union workers and contractors. “I’m hoping it’s a corner that we’re turning,” Haneberg told the Labor Press. Could benefits be restored? The pension cuts take effect Feb. 1, but if the pension plan’s fi- nances improve enough in the coming years — through a com- bination of exceptional invest- ment returns and increased work hours by active members — trustees would be able to backfill some of the lost benefits. In fact, the rules would require them to. There’s also a possibility that Congress could act to restore ben- efits. Last year, Congress created a special bipartisan committee to look at solutions for the roughly 1 in 10 union-sponsored multi- employer plans that are headed for insolvency. The committee held hearings in the summer of 2018, but failed in its mandate to come up a proposed solution by the end of November. However, committee members did leak a draft of the proposal they were working on. Among the details: The federal government would lend money to distressed pension plans — including ones that had already made MPRA cuts — to allow them to invest their way back to financial health. Propos- als like that are expected to resur- face in bills introduced in the new Congress that began Jan. 3. UNIONIZATION ] NOV-DEC 2018 The following are Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces where workers have decided whether to be represented by a union. The thumbs-up symbol means workers will be union- represented. Thumbs-down means they’ll be on their own. The information comes from the National Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board. Union election results Employer (Location) Union Yes-No Rodda Paint (Portland) Painters Local 1094 7-3 ^ 32-0 ^ ■ 10 warehouse employees Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare (Portland) Oregon AFSCME ■ 50 crisis counselors, nurse practitioners and others at the 1825 NE Glisan St. location Cascadia Behavioral Healthcare (Portland) Oregon AFSCME 8-0 ^ 2-0 ^ 13-9 ^ ■ 8 counselors and administrative workers at the 310 NW Flanders St. location Total Traffic & Weather Network (Tigard) SAG-AFTRA ■ 2 traffic editors/announcers Burgerville (Portland) Industrial Workers of the World ■ 22 crew members at the company’s 1122 SE Hawthorne location Providence Portland Medical Center (Portland) SEIU Local 49 374-376 % ■ 838 non-professional support workers, including cooks, housekeepers, and CNAs Tube-Art Displays (Milwaukie) IBEW Local 48 7-1 ^ ■ 8 outside servicemen and installers National AFL-CIO to celebrate MLK Day “We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conun- drum of life and history, there ‘is’ such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigor- ous and positive action.” —Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Hundreds of social justice professionals, activists, and community leaders will meet in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20 for the 2019 AFL- CIO Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Civil and Human Rights Confer- ence. There, they will celebrate the legacy and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and call on all working people to rise up with courage and conviction in a demand for economic and racial justice. In Dr. King’s famous 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom speech, he told a divided nation that we need one another and that we are stronger when we march forward, together. Now, more than 50 years later in these trying times, his words still ring true. We are in the midst of great political and social unrest. We have witnessed devastating rollbacks and attacks on our rights in recent years. But we have an opportunity to come together, lift up one another and strategize collectively for the future of our dreams. James Coon Steelworkers, IBEW launch union drive at Tesla plant Cynthia Newton Melissa Haggerty Chris Frost Sydney Montanaro Get your disability application done right, right from the beginning. We help folks from the start. 820 SW Second Ave., Suite 200, Portland, OR 97204 Scott Sell Chris Thomas www.tcnf.legal BUFFALO, NY (PAI)—Re- sponding to worker contacts, United Steelworkers and the In- ternational Brotherhood of Elec- trical Workers (IBEW) have launched a joint organizing drive at the Tesla “green jobs” solar panel plant in Buffalo, New York. The campaign, which started last month, aims to organize ap- proximately 400 production and maintenance workers at the plant, a former Steelworker-rep- resented Republic Steel factory. The plant is now part of a state initiative to bring high-tech fac- tory jobs to the area. “The only way we can ensure we have a voice in the company and have equal rights across the board is with a union contract,” Aaron Nicpon, a member of the internal organizing committee, said. “We want to have a voice at Tesla so we can have a better fu- ture for ourselves and our fami- lies.” Added fellow member Rob Walsh: “I wanted to work at Tesla because I wanted a job in green energy, a job that can change the world. But I also want a fair wage for my work.” “We’re committed to the con- tinuing success of this facility, and to making sure that Tesla’s highly-skilled work force has good, family-sustaining jobs,” said Steelworkers District 4 Di- rector John Shinn. The Steelworkers and IBEW are partnering with the “Clean Air Coalition of Western New York and the Coalition of Eco- nomic Justice.
