SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 120, NUMBER 23
IN THIS ISSUE
LABOR LOSES SEAT ON PORT COMMISSION Oregon
Gov. Brown’s appointments leave just one. | Page 5
MCMINNVILLE NURSES UNIONIZE Safety is a top
concern at Willamette Valley Medical Center | Page 6
Meeting Notices p.4
Union gift guide p.3
PORTLAND, OREGON
DECEMBER 6, 2019
UNION ORGANIZING
WORKERS’ RIGHTS
Grand Central Bakery workers will vote on union
NLRB: Legacy must
recognize union
Workers at the company’s North-
west Portland wholesale bakery
want to join Bakers Local 114.
By Don McIntosh
Driven by concerns about
safety, understaffing, sexual ha-
rassment, and compensation,
workers at Grand Central Bak-
ing Company’s Northwest
Portland wholesale bakery are
seeking to unionize.
A majority of the 45 bakers
and dishwashers at the 2249
NW York St. plant signed cards
seeking to join 1,170-member
Bakery Confectionery, Tobacco
and Grain Millers (BCTGM)
Local 114, and on Nov. 22, they
petitioned the National Labor
Relations Board (NLRB) to
schedule a union election. That
set the clock ticking for a union
campaign at the busiest time of
the year for the company.
The day after filing for an
election, union supporters dis-
tributed an eight-page pamphlet
to co-workers at all other loca-
tions in Portland and Seattle.
The pamphlet—distributed in
break rooms, on car wind-
shields, and at service coun-
ters—lays out the specifics of
why workers at the Portland
wholesale bakery want to
unionize, and calls on the com-
pany to welcome their decision.
“Unionized labor is work-
place democracy that shows re-
spect for the work we do and
allows us to have more of a
voice on issues affecting our
livelihood,” the pamphlet says.
Grand Central is owned by
brother and sister Ben and
Piper Davis and four others, but
it’s no tiny mom and pop.
Founded in 1989 in Seattle, it’s
grown to 12 retail locations and
two wholesale baking opera-
MADE BY UNION
HANDS? The Grand
Central Bakery bread
sold at seven Port-
land-area cafes and on
local grocery shelves
is made by workers at
a wholesale bakery in
an industrial area in
Northwest Portland.
A majority of them
have signed cards say-
ing they’re ready to
join Bakers Local 114,
and a vote is sched-
uled for December 12.
tions in Portland and Seattle, to-
taling about 400 employees
company-wide. Its bread is sold
at Fred Meyer, QFC, Whole
Foods, New Seasons Market,
and other stores, and its buns
are served at Burgerville.
That begins to put it in the
same league as other large bak-
Turn to Page 2
Unity Center for Behavioral
Health must recognize and bar-
gain with the union representing
its 200 nurses, the National La-
bor Relations Board (NLRB)
has ruled. Unity is Portland’s
only 24-hour psychiatric emer-
gency facility. Nurses there
voted 128 to 25 to join the Ore-
gon Nurses Association (ONA)
on June 19, but Legacy Health,
the parent entity of Unity Cen-
ter, asked the NLRB to discard
those results, arguing that Unity
Center was part of a broader
health system that includes
Legacy Emanuel Hospital, and
that because of that, nurses
couldn’t create a separate bar-
gaining unit. Legacy may have
been hoping the Trump-ap-
pointed Board would agree, but
on Nov. 19 all three Trump ap-
pointees rejected its legal ap-
peal.
ANALYSIS
The past, present, and future of American labor
For 19 years, journalist Steven
Greenhouse wrote about labor
for the New York Times. His new
book—Beaten Down, Worked
Up—looks at labor’s rise, de-
cline and possible rebirth. Labor
Press reporter Don McIntosh in-
terviewed him by phone.
Why are there so few labor
journalists today? Newspapers
got really smashed in the first
decade of this century, and
greatly reduced the size of the
newsroom. And one of the first
beats to go was labor. Editors
don’t think the labor beat is as
sexy as covering the Seattle
Mariners or Beyoncé. And
unions are not as powerful and
prominent as they used to be.
Why did you write this book?
I think the bumper sticker,
“Unions: the folks who brought
you the weekend” is very true,
and people don’t appreciate that
enough. So I wrote this book to
help educate a younger genera-
tion about what unions are and
what they’ve accomplished, to
inspire them. Workers are being
shafted in many ways, and
unions, though often flawed, can
really help lift workers. Unfortu-
nately union power and worker
power in the U.S. is at the lowest
level since World War Two. Be-
cause worker power is so weak
and corporate power is so great,
we’re the only industrialized na-
tion that doesn’t guarantee paid
parental leave. We’re the only
industrialized nation that doesn’t
guarantee all workers vacations.
In the European Union, 28 na-
tions, all workers are guaranteed
four weeks paid vacation. The
United States and South Korea
are the only two industrialized
nations that don’t guarantee paid
sick days. Our minimum wage is
the lowest of any of the 36
OECD nations. So I try educat-
ing people about how the decline
of unions has hurt the nation.
“I believe that unions are the most effective
way to lift millions of workers. And I think
that’s almost an objective statement.”
— Steven Greenhouse,
former New York Times labor reporter
In mainstream journalism
you’re not supposed to take
sides. But the tradition of or-
ganized labor is to ask
“Which side are you on?” Did
you feel like you took sides
when you were at the New
York Times? Do you take sides
in this book? At the New York
Times I tried very hard to write
balanced stories, fair stories that
gave equal say to both sides, and
I very rarely got complaints
about favoring one side or the
other. I got lots of complaints
from unions when I wrote about
union corruption. But I also
wrote lots of stories about Wal-
mart and Target engaging in
wage theft, making people work
off the clock. And Walmart and
Target weren’t happy with me
writing these stories. Now since
leaving the New York Times, I
felt a little more freedom to ex-
press opinions. In the book I
tried to make it fair to all sides.
In writing about the air traffic
controllers strike, I also give the
views of Ronald Reagan. But I
believe that unions are the most
effective way to lift millions of
workers. And I think that’s al-
most an objective statement.
When I say that unions can do
good, I don’t think I’m taking a
side. I believe that a market
economy can help lift millions
of people. I think unions can
help lift millions of people.
Why has the union movement
become smaller and weaker in
the last 40 years? There are
many reasons. A big one is the
decline of manufacturing em-
ployment in the United States.
It’s gone from about 19.5 million
to about 12.5 million, and man-
ufacturing was long the core of
labor strength in the nation.
Manufacturing declined in large
part because of offshoring. So
much was moved to China and
Vietnam and Bangladesh and
Mexico. Another reason is that
corporate America fights so hard
against unions. In no other in-
dustrial nation do corporations
fight so hard to beat back and
quash unionization efforts. I was
an economics reporter in Europe
for five years for the New York
Times. Corporations there see
unions as legitimate institutions
they’ve got to deal with and
work with to create profits and
prosperity, whereas in the United
Turn to Page 2