SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 120, NUMBER 16
Special
LABOR DAY
Edition
PORTLAND, OREGON
A DAY FOR PICNICS
Every year on Labor Day, union members gather to cele-
brate family and community. Here are this year’s events.
PORTLAND — The region’s largest Labor Day picnic takes place at Oaks
Amusement Park in Southeast Portland, sponsored by the Northwest
Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO. Members and their families from dozens
of unions – more than 15,000 people –
FOOD-DRINK-FUN
turn out for barbecue, games, carnival
Deluxe ride bracelets $13.17
rides, raffle drawings, music, and a
$1.00
chance to hear from local politicians. The Food/drink scrip
Burger + chips 3 scrip
picnic runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. There
Hot dog + chips 2 scrip
will be a kids’ scavenger hunt, and a
Chili
1 scrip
blood drive challenge. Politicians take the Ice Cream
1 scrip
stage at 1 p.m.
Beer
4 scrip
Pop
1 scrip
Free shuttle train: Labor Day is the
Water
1 scrip
busiest day of the year at Oaks Park. To
help union members avoid traffic jams
FREE SHUTTLE TRAIN!
and parking headaches, the Northwest
Oregon Labor Council has made
arrangements with the Oregon Pacific Railroad for a free shuttle train into
Oaks Park. The train boards at Southeast 4th and Caruthers, near OMSI.
There is plenty of street parking near the McLoughlin Overpass and McCoy
Millwork, and the Portland Opera will open its parking lot — yellow
spaces only. The pin code for the gate will be 1895. The 5-mile shuttle
runs from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (last train). For more information, call the
Northwest Oregon Labor Council at 503-235-9444.
AUGUST 16, 2019
ASHLAND — 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Emigrant Lake, Picnic Shelter D,
5505 Highway 66, Ashland. Food and entertainment for the
whole family. Lunch will be served at noon. Vehicle fee of $4.
Sponsored by the Southern Oregon Central Labor Chapter.
BEND — 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., Pioneer Park, NW Wall St., Bend.
There will be food, drinks, and live music. Bring your family! Invite
your friends! Please bring a dessert, everything else will be
provided. Sponsored by the Central Oregon Labor Chapter.
SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON -Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Counties
Labor Council and SW Washington Labor Council are teaming up
for a good old-fashioned union Labor Day picnic. 11 a.m. to 3
p.m., Haydu Park, 253 Kalama River Road, Kalama, Washington.
There will be barbecue lunch, music, kids’ games, local politicians,
and more.
EUGENE/SPRINGFIELD — Splash Pool Picnic Shelter, 6100
Thurston Road, Springfield. Noon to 3:30 p.m. Hamburgers, hot
dogs, live music, door prizes. Please bring a side dish to share.
Sponsored by the Lane County Central Labor Chapter.
SALEM — 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Riverfront City Park, 200 Water St.,
NE, Salem. A barbecue with all the fixings will be provided. Guest
speakers from 11-11:30 a.m. Request two non-perishable food
items per person, or $2 per person for the Marion/Polk Food
Bank. Sponsored by Marion-Polk-Yamhill Labor Chapter. Contact
Will Music at 503-598-6344 or williamafmusic@gmail.com
NORTH BEND/COOS BAY — There is no picnic this year.
LABOR
DAY
Monday, September 2
Troll on the Hill
At OHSU, a union volunteer uncovered management bargaining team members engaging in obscene social media trolling
Union accusations about online
trolling lead to the resignation of
two OHSU executives
By Don McIntosh
Jesse Miller’s day job is helping
Oregon Health and Science Uni-
versity (OHSU) patients sched-
ule and keep appointments. He’s
also a steward, executive board
officer, and social media team
volunteer for his union, AF-
SCME Local 328. On Local
328’s Facebook and Twitter ac-
counts, he posts bargaining up-
dates, and responds to questions
and comments from fellow
members.
In April, he noticed odd posts
from someone claiming to be a
member, but didn’t think a lot
about it.
Local 328 is one of Oregon’s
largest union locals, representing
nearly 7,000 OHSU employees.
Most of its diverse membership
is supportive of the union, but
criticism of the union isn’t un-
THE TROLL CATCHER OHSU office support staffperson Jesse Miller—pictured,
creating a live Facebook feed of AFSCME Local 328’s Aug. 8 contract rally—
thought something was odd about the online trolls began attacking Local 328.
heard of, and Miller was used to
responding to critics respectfully
and forthrightly.
“If they were a member, and
had questions, I wanted to give
them good faith honest an-
swers,” he said.
But by late July, Miller says it
became clear that the union had
a troll problem.
In Internet parlance, a troll is
a person who shows up to the
social media water cooler
specifically to cause turmoil, in-
sulting or baiting others into an
emotional response. Keyboard
cowards, they nearly always use
fake names and try to stay
anonymous.
Local 328’s Twitter account
started getting interactions from
a pair of Twitter accounts under
the names “Aanus McFadden”
and “Roy Vragina.”
Miller says the accounts
spread misinformation and tried
to bait others, for example ask-
ing why the union wouldn’t
agree to a management proposal
to give bigger raises to lower-
paid workers. [Because it wasn’t
a serious proposal, and was in-
tended to create division in the
union, Miller says.]
On the bus to his home in the
St. Johns neighborhood, Miller’s
phone buzzed with Twitter noti-
fications. “Aanus” was com-
plaining that his questions
weren’t being answered imme-
diately.
“This is pretty classic troll be-
havior,” Miller says. “And look-
ing at the account, the name is
ludicrous.”
Miller joked to members of
the union bargaining team about
it, and someone said he should
look more closely at the account.
The troll hadn’t hidden his iden-
tity very carefully. The Aanus
McFadden Twitter account had
only one follower, Roy Vragina,
and Vragina had only one fol-
lower as well: an account named
“Frengle” with a picture of …
Patrick Frengle, an OHSU finan-
cial analyst and member of the
management bargaining team.
The McFadden and Vragina ac-
counts were both created in Oc-
tober 2012. And McFadden,
Vragina and Frengle followed
identical accounts, including po-
litical prognosticator Nate Silver
and comic Sarah Silverman.
Miller and Local 328’s other
social media volunteers dis-
cussed with their union staff reps
what to do about it. They de-
cided to watch and wait, and
document the behavior with
screenshots.
Turn to Page 31