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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 2019)
PAGE 8 | May 17, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS BUILDING COMMUNITY WORKERS RIGHTS Donations pouring in for the families of ironworkers killed in Seattle crane collapse ‘Progressive’ New Seasons Market paid union-buster a third of a million dollars More than $128,000 has been donated to the families of two ironworkers killed in an April 27 tower crane collapse in downtown Seattle. The mishap took the lives of Travis Corbet, a member of Portland Iron Workers Local 29, and An- drew Yoder, a member of Seat- tle Iron Workers Local 86. Following the accident, Ironworkers USA Credit Union set up a donation ac- count to assist the families. Corbet, 33, was a newlywed just getting ready to start a family. Yoder, 31, was married and the father of two sons, ages 5 and 3. Both men were former Marines. Corbet lived in Oregon City and Yoder resided in North Bend, Wash- Labor’s Community Services Agency spring fund drive Union-sponsored Labor’s Community Services Agency (LCSA) is calling on union members to contribute to its Spring 2019 fundraising cam- paign by June 15. LCSA helps union members who find themselves facing temporary hardship. Among other pro- ington. Yoder also had ties to Oregon, having been raised in Silverton. “It has been heartwarming to see the overwhelming love and support for Travis Corbet and Andrew Yoder, showing the special bond our labor unions and contractors have here,” said credit union CEO Teri Robinson. HELP FOR THE FAMILIES Ironworkers USA Credit Union will continue to accept donations to assist the Corbet and Yoder fami- lies. To contribute, go to ironwork- ersfcu.org/ironworkerssupportin- gironworkers, or call 1-877-769-4766. grams, it provides rapid re- sponse when union members face layoffs, subsidizes child care expenses for apprentices trying to get into the skilled trades, and helps struggling union families with holiday gifts. Contributions can be made at LCSAportland.org/donate or mailed to 9955 SE Wash- ington Street, Ste 211, Port- land, OR 97216. Unions help Stamp Out Hunger Above, students from Mt. Hood Community College help unload a mail truck full of food at the Gresham Post Office on May 11. The food collection was part of the Stamp Out Hunger food drive coor- dinated by the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) and the U.S. Postal Service. After the food was boxed up, Bill Martinmaas and Greg Hampton, members of Teamsters Local 162 employed at Fred Meyer, loaded it onto 18-wheel trucks and later hauled the food to the Oregon Food Bank, where it gets sorted and distributed. Also helping in Gresham was John Vandermosten, a retired mem- ber of IBEW Local 48. The Stamp Out Hunger food drive started 27 years ago. On the second Saturday in May, letter carriers — in ad- dition to their regular workload — collect food from people in more than 10,000 cities across the country. It’s the largest one-day food drive in the world. As off press time, total amounts of food collected in Oregon and nationwide had not been calculated. The total bill may have been higher, because the rules don’t require disclosure for training managers and supervisors. We finally know how much New Seasons Market spent to talk its employees out of unionizing: $325,855. In a federally mandated public disclosure signed March 25, 2019, Vice President of Human Resources Corey Routh declared that New Seasons paid that amount to Cruz & Associates, a union-avoidance consultancy based in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The disclosure, known as an LM-10, says New Seasons hired made an oral agreement with Lupe Cruz of Cruz & Associates in October 2017, in effect “to persuade employees … not to exercise … the right to organize and bargain collectively.” A group of New Seasons em- ployees — working with United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555 — had announced a union campaign at the company on Nov. 1, 2017. Within weeks, union-busting consultants were in stores talking to workers. The anti-union meetings took place in November 2017, but the LM-10 shows payment wasn’t made until Feb. 13, 2018, possi- bly to delay disclosure for a year. The delay prompted the work- ers rights group Portland Jobs With Justice to file a complaint New Seasons workers and supporters held a union rally Dec. 19, 2017, out- side a New Seasons store on North Interstate Avenue in Portland. May 6 with the U.S. Department of Labor, alleging that Cruz and Associates and New Seasons vi- olated the law by filing late dis- closures. And New Seasons may actu- ally have paid more than the dis- closed amount. The disclosures are required under the Labor Management Reporting and Dis- closure Act. But the U.S. Depart- ment of Labor has long inter- preted the law to say that only “persuader” activity — in which consultants talk directly to front- line workers — must be re- ported. That means any billings for meetings consultants had with New Seasons managers and supervisors didn’t have to be dis- closed. In an audio recording of one of the anti-union meetings with workers, Cruz said he per- sonally trained then-CEO Wendy Collie and most of the com- pany’s department managers. New Seasons presents a pub- lic image as a progressive grocer, a “B Corp” committed to people and planet, not just profit. But hiring Cruz & Associates puts it in the company of some of the most anti-union corporations in America. In the last couple years Cruz & Associates has fought union campaigns among nursing home workers in Orlando; ware- house workers in New Jersey; and hotel housekeepers at Trump Hotel Las Vegas, the Sheraton in Stamford, Connecticut, Court- yard Hotel in Carlsbad, Califor- nia, and Embassy Suites & Hilton Garden Inn in Chicago. Support for the New Seasons union campaign flat-lined after the company brought in the anti- union consultants. By late spring, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 laid off organizers it devoted to the campaign. In July, New Seasons Workers United announced a de- cision to continue independently of UFCW. The group has been less active since then.
