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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 15, 2019)
PAGE 2 | February 15, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Senior staff reporter: Don McIntosh Office manager: Jill Lukens Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $15 a year for union members, $23 a year for all others. Pay by credit card online at nwlaborpress.org/subscribe, or send a check to our mailing address (above) along with your name, address and union affiliation, if any. Group rates of 47 cents an issue per member — $11.28 a year are available for 25 or more subscriptions; call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: If you move, let us know at nwlaborpress.org/subscriber-services or by mail at our mailing address (above). Be sure to provide your old and new addresses and the name/number of your local union. Please allow three weeks for the change to take effect. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 NATIONAL Trump appointee wants to ban Scabby the Rat Standing 25 feet tall, with scary red eyes and yellow fangs, Scabby the Rat is a union hero and an eye-catch- ing sign of a labor dispute — typi- cally where non-union “rat” contrac- tors are at work. But the Trump-appointed top lawyer at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) hates Scabby, and is trying to ban the inflatable beast, according to a Jan. 22 article in Bloomberg. The NLRB is an independent fed- eral agency that administers the fed- eral law governing most private sec- tor unions. It consists of two parts: a quasi-judicial five-member board that interprets the law and decides cases, and a network of field offices that runs union certification elections and prosecutes labor law violations, headed by an independent general counsel. Since December 2017, the general counsel has been Trump appointee Peter Robb, a management-side la- bor lawyer who for years repre- sented National Elevator Bargaining Association in its dealings with the International Union of Electrical Constructors. Robb has been looking since last April for a case to attack Scabby with, according to an unnamed NLRB source cited by Bloomberg — and in December he found one. The case centers around Donegal Services, a non-union dump truck company targeted by Operating En- gineers Local 150. Local 150 put Scabby up at multiple Donegal job sites along with sign saying “Shame on” the project owner “for harboring rat contractors." Donegal filed an un- fair labor practice charge against the union saying the rat “threatened, co- erced, or restrained,” Donegal’s cus- tomers, and therefore violated the law’s ban on “secondary boycotts” and “recognitional picketing.” Based on past precedent, local NLRB agents dismissed the charge, but Robb ordered them to revive the complaint and seek an injunction. The case is pending. Most labor lawyers think Scabby will win: The rat has faced multiple court chal- lenges over the years, but always won, thanks to the First Amendment protection of symbolic speech. According to labor journalist Sarah Jaffe, Scabby was con- ceived in 1990 by Ken Lambert and Don Newton, organizers with Illinois-based Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Dis- trict Council 1. They worked with union-represented Big Sky Balloons of Plainfield, Illinois, to design the rat, and it was an immediate hit. Big Sky has made hundreds of rats since then, and added cigar-smoking fat cats and greedy pigs to its line-up. THIS NEWSPAPER IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY AMERICA’S LABOR MOVEMENT … AND BY OUR ADVERTISERS. LET THEM KNOW THEIR SUPPORT IS APPRECIATED! Low Prices! Coats, etc. Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6
