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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2019)
PAGE 2 | December 6, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Senior staff reporter: Don McIntosh Office manager: Jill Lukens From Page 1 ery employers that are union- ized and pay higher wages and benefits. Portland-based Local 114 represents bakery workers at Franz, Kroger, Safeway and Bimbo/Oroweat, as well as bak- ery department workers at local grocery stores. At Franz, bakers make $25.18 an hour plus bene- fits under the union contract; at Grand Central, bakers top out at $18.37 an hour. Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $15 a year for union members, $23 a year for all others. Pay by credit card online at nwlaborpress.org/subscribe, or send a check to our mailing address (above) along with your name, address and union affiliation, if any. Group rates of 47 cents an issue per member — $11.28 a year are available for 25 or more subscriptions; call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: If you move, let us know at nwlaborpress.org/subscriber-services or by mail at our mailing address (above). Be sure to provide your old and new addresses and the name/number of your local union. Please allow three weeks for the change to take effect. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 Low Prices! Coats, etc. Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6 PLEASE SHOW OUR ADVERTISERS YOU APPRECIATE THEIR SUPPORT FOR THIS LABOR MOVEMENT NEWSPAPER! laid off workers were rehired at other locations. Wisnor went on to get a job enforcing labor laws at the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI). Now, Grand Central has an- other chance to make good on its brand-claim of being a busi- ness as a force for good — by recognizing the union, or stand- ing aside while workers make that decision on their own. At press time, the company had declined to voluntarily rec- ognize the union, and a union election is scheduled for Dec. 12. laws, which are unfortunately improve conditions for work- called “right-to-work” laws. And ing people? A few years ago a Democrats have increasingly lot of people were saying labor really seems dead in seen themselves as the water. And then the party of lawyers out of nowhere in and doctors and engi- early 2018 came the neers and Hollywood West Virginia teach- and Wall Street. In ers strike, which was this insane political huge, and then the system we have Oklahoma teacher where politicians strike, and Arizona, have to chase after and LA. And all of a donors, there are sudden labor is on huge incentives to fo- cus more on Wall Beaten Down, Worked Up the front page and leading the TV news, Street hedge fund By Steven Greenhouse and people are feel- managers than steel Alfred A. Knopf, 2019 ing excited about la- workers in Pittsburgh or Walmart workers who make bor. Success begets more suc- cess. I think the teacher strike $27,000 a year. What do you think holds the help lead to the big Stop and most promise for restoring the Shop strike in New England. power of organized labor to And the teachers strikes really opened peoples eyes. What’s great about the teacher strikes is they weren’t just about raising teacher pay but about helping improve education. Bargaining for the common good I think is really important. Unions see that they’re not as strong as they once were. It’s good for them to develop partnerships with com- munity groups and environmen- talists. And we seen that with the Fight for 15 too: It’s like, “We’re not the unions of old that cared only about helping our members. We are unions that are trying to lift up all of society.” I think that’s really helping open peoples’ eyes about the opportu- nity unions present and how they can lift millions of workers and overall communities. ...Grand Central Bakery (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. attempts by workers to exercise their rights. In 2013, Grand Cen- tral reinstated cafe worker Ryan Wisnor to settle an NLRB charge that it had fired him for complaining about safety, wages, and staffing on behalf of co-workers. Later, when Wisnor and coworkers at the same loca- tion began a campaign to join Laborers Local 483, Grand Cen- tral closed the cafe months ahead of schedule. Co-owner Piper Davis told the Labor Press at the time that the closure was unrelated to the union cam- paign. But none of the cafe’s ...Greenhouse From Page 1 States, a lot of corporations see unions as the enemy. Then there’s the big increase in service sector employment. Beauty par- lors and nail salons and restau- rants are generally harder to unionize. A fourth reason is that unions have too often been asleep at the wheel and done far too little unionizing. Why have Democratic politi- cians been such fair weather friends, and Republicans ever more dedicated enemies? Re- publicans have been very focused on trying to cripple unions, as we saw with Scott walker in Wiscon- sin with all these anti-union-fee Will Grand Central fight the union campaign? Calls and emails from the Labor Press went unreturned. The company goes to great effort to tout itself as an ethical enterprise, and last year paid to become a “Certified B Corporation” a designation that supposedly commits it to use its profits to make a positive impact for its employees, com- munities, and the environment. But the company didn’t roll out the welcome mat in previous
