SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 120, NUMBER 7
IN THIS ISSUE
LITTLE BIG UNION Fast food workers launch a union at
the Little Big Burger chain | Page 2
STANDING UP FOR CITIZEN INVOLVEMENT UFCW
faults Multnomah County for purging volunteers. | Page 3
Meeting Notices p.4
Happenings p.4
PORTLAND, OREGON
APRIL 5, 2019
County’s new health headquarters is union-made
By Don McIntosh
Twenty-seven months after
breaking ground, Multnomah
County’s new nine-story Health
Department headquarters is open
to the public. Located at 619 NW
Sixth Avenue, it occupies half a
city block between Union Station
and the soon-to-be-redeveloped
14-acre U.S. Postal Service site.
It was built by union hands, and
will now be a union workplace,
with three clinics, a pharmacy, a
lab, and office space for health
department employees who ad-
minister public health programs,
emergency response, and mental
health and addiction services.
Workers at the Multnomah
County Health Department are
represented by AFSCME Local
88.
At a March 20 grand open-
ing, Multnomah County Chair
Deborah Kafoury was plainly
proud of the $94.1 million proj-
ect. Multnomah County’s core
values are diversity, sustainabil-
WASHINGTON LEGISLATURE
Turn to Page 5
ROOFTOP TOUR Building trades officers Willy Myers (left) and Bob Carroll
praised Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury and her policy adviser
Liz Smith Currie for the work they did to craft a project labor agreement.
Local 290 members say it’s time to talk about diversity
By Don McIntosh
It’s the third Tuesday of March,
and 16 plumbers and pipefitters
sit at a circle of tables at the front
of a giant meeting hall in Tu-
alatin, telling stories. The subject
is race and gender, and why so
few women and minorities join
— or remain — in United Asso-
ciation of Plumbers and Steam-
fitters Local 290. It’s the
monthly meeting of the United
Association Diversity Commit-
tee. Anthony O’Neal Jr., an
African-American journeyman
pipefitter, is the chair.
Local 290 is a massive union
of 4,400 members, enough to
populate a city half the size of
Astoria, Oregon. And yet
O’Neal can name nearly every
black member without running
out of fingers and toes. Women,
too, are rare. Latinos, common in
some other construction trades,
are less so in the pipe trades.
ALL FOR ONE AND ONE FOR ALL: Plumbers and Steamfitters Local 290’s
Diversity Committee meets the third Tuesday of each month.
Nor is that on track to change
soon: 95 percent of today’s Lo-
cal 290 apprentices are men, and
88 percent are white. Of the 554
current Local 290 apprentices,
just six are African American, 10
are Asian or Pacific Islanders, 16
Native Americans, and 26 His-
panic; 30 are women.
The idea to create a diversity
Legislative action
committee was born in an on-
the-job conversation O’Neal had
with Lou Christian in December
2017. O’Neal was the foreman
on the job. Christian, then run-
ning for business manager (the
local’s top elected office), was on
his crew. Christian made the is-
sue part of his campaign, pledg-
ing to work so that members of
all races and genders feel wel-
come and supported in the
union. He won, and the commit-
tee was formed last summer.
Lack of diversity isn’t just a
fact at Local 290, but across the
building trades. According to
2016 data from the Equal Em-
ployment Opportunity Commis-
sion, women are less than 2 per-
cent of the skilled craft workers
in construction nationwide, and
blacks are less than 7 percent.
At Local 290, members of the
Diversity Committee hope to
change that. They want to recruit
more women and minority
workers into the union, support
them when they get there, and
encourage them to become ac-
tive in the local. The committee
is open to all members, not just
women and minorities. White
men, like retired former business
Turn to Page 8
Tax the rich House Democrats unveiled a
two-year budget March 26 that includes
a 9.9% Extraordinary Profits tax on the
sale of stocks and bonds when profits are
over $200,000, and an increase in Real
Estate Excise Tax rates on those selling
property valued over $1.5 million.
Crack down on noncompete
agreements Employers have
increasingly been requiring workers to
sign pledges agreeing not to go to work
for competitors. SB 5478 would prohibit
such “non-compete agreements” for
workers making less than $100,000, bar
their use when an employee is laid off,
and limit them in all cases to 18
months. It passed the Senate 30-18 on
March 5 and is now in the House.
Transition to clean energy SB 5116,
backed by the Washington State Labor
Council, would require Washington
electric utilities to phase out coal by
2025 and use 100 percent clean energy
by 2045. Tax incentives to help them do
that would be tied to labor standards
like the prevailing wage and
apprenticeship utilization. It passed the
Senate 28-19 on March 1.
OREGON LEGISLATURE
Hold business accountable for labor
law violations Backed by a union
coalition, SB 750 would allow workers
or organizations to sue in the name of
the state over violation of labor and
employment laws. It was scheduled to
be taken up by committee April 4.
Combat workplace sexual
harassment HB 3333 would bar any
employment agreement preventing
workers from disclosing or discussing
unlawful discrimination, including
sexual assault. The bill was scheduled
for its first committee hearing April 5,
and a possible vote on April 8.