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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 2019)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | May 17, 2019 | PAGE 3 NATIONAL Google retaliates over sexual harassment walkout Google employees respond with May Day sit-ins Members of International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 1660 showed up to the Joint Ways and Means Committee to hear a May 10 presentation about SB 1049-1, the bill that will cut employee compensation in order to reduce employer contributions to the PERS system. ... PERS under attack From Page 1 Account Program (IAP), a 401(k)-style “defined contribu- tion” retirement savings plan. The Kotek-Courtney diversion would come out of the em- ployee contribution to that IAP, thus reducing the retirement benefits they’d receive from the IAP program. The proposal would allow workers to restore their retirement savings contri- bution to 6 percent by taking the difference out of their wages. The IAP diversion would end if the PERS sys- tem’s “funded status” reaches 90 percent again. The Kotek- Raymond Thomas Cynthia Newton Melissa Haggerty Courtney proposal is contained in Senate Bill 1049-1. The pro- posal has several other ele- ments. It would: ■ Pay down the unfunded liability over 22 years (instead of the current 20 years) ■ Cut in half in the interest rate used to calculate annual benefits under the PERS “Money Match” formula. ■ Limit the final salary used in benefits calculations to $195,000, indexed for inflation. [That would reduce benefits for the highest-earning 0.8 percent of workers in Tier 1 and 0.3 percent for Tier 2.] ■ Temporarily eliminate restrictions on retirees returning to work from 2020 to 2024, and require employers to pay full pension contributions on those returned employees. Senate Bill 1049-1 was scheduled for a hearing late on May 14, after this issue went to press. Governor Brown’s proposal The Kotek-Courtney proposal came after a proposal by Gov. Kate Brown failed to find the support of two-thirds of the Legislature. Brown had pro- posed to increase PERS assets by adding $500 million from next year’s “kicker” income tax rebates and taking $1.4 billion out of a large reserve fund held by the State Accident Insurance Fund (SAIF). James Coon Chris Frost Sydney Montanaro You need a lawyer who understands how your union disability benefits and your Social Security disability benefits will fit together. 820 SW Second Ave., Suite 200, Portland, OR 97204 Scott Sell Chris Thomas www.tcnf.legal By Mark Gruenberg PAI Staff Writer Remember the Google worker walkout over sexual harassment on the job — and company pay- offs to harassers — six months ago? Google did, and it’s retali- ating against walkout leaders. The workers did, too. On May Day, hundreds staged sit- ins at the Internet firm’s offices in New York, London, Cam- bridge, Mass., San Francisco, Pittsburgh and elsewhere to de- nounce that retaliation, which is illegal under federal labor law. A Google worker in New York filed a labor-law-breaking complaint with the National La- bor Relations Board’s regional office there on April 22. The charges in that case are “retalia- tion, discipline, discharge” for being a walkout leader. It joins an ongoing NLRB complaint against Google. More than 20,000 Google workers worldwide walked out last Nov. 1 after revelations of sexual harassment on the job — and news of a $90 million sev- erance package paid to former executive Andy Rubin, who had forced a worker to perform oral sex on him. November walkout leaders Meredith Whittaker and Claire Stapleton told the Associated Press about company retaliation against them. Google cancelled one of Whittaker’s projects, costing her pay and bonuses. She then led the May Day sit- ins, too. “Retaliation isn’t always ob- vious,” said Stapleton in an e- mail. “It’s often confusing and drawn out, consisting of icy conversations, gaslighting, proj- ect cancellations, transition re- jections, or demotions. Behavior that tells someone the problem isn’t that they stood up to the company, it’s that they’re not good enough and don’t belong.” Stapleton was demoted, her project was cancelled and she was ordered to go on sick leave, even though she wasn’t sick. When she hired an attorney, Google cancelled the demotion. Delta Airlines faces public backlash over anti-union leaflets A set of anti-union leaflets put out by Delta Airlines provoked an online backlash May 9, with tens of thousands of outraged people sharing images, and elected leaders like U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders denouncing the company. Only pilots and dispatchers are union-represented at notori- ously anti-union Delta, which is the least unionized of any major U.S. airline. But the Interna- tional Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) has been campaigning to repre- sent flight attendants and ramp and cargo workers there. In re- sponse, Delta has been holding weekly anti-union meetings, playing anti-union videos non- stop in break rooms, campaign- ing via an anti-union web site DontRiskItDontSignIt.com, and distributing anti-union printed materials. “Union dues cost around $700 a year,” says one of the leaflets. “A new video game system with the latest hits sounds like fun. Put your money towards that instead of paying dues to the union.” “What does $700 mean to you?” says another. “Nothing’s more enjoyable than a night out watching football with your buddies. All those union dues you pay every year could buy a few rounds.”
