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.