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December 6, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
UNION ORGANIZING
McMinnville hospital nurses file for
union election as safety worsens
ATU 757 supporting our veterans
ATU LOCAL 757 once again took part in the Port-
land Veterans Day Parade hosted by Ross Holly-
wood Chapel. Now in its 45th year, more than a
dozen ATU members (most of whom are veterans)
marched with hundreds of veterans and their
families. They hoisted their union banner as they
walked alongside their union-adorned mini-bus.
The parade, which runs up Sandy Boulevard in the
Hollywood District, honors all who have worn the
uniform of the armed services. Others groups par-
ticipating included the Royal Rosarians, several
high school marching bands, military groups, first
responders, scout troops and politicians. D-Day
veterans Ben Asquith and Abe Laurenzo were this
year’s grand marshals.
JOBS
Shipping returns to Portland’s Terminal 6
South Korea-based container
carrier SM Line will be begin
weekly container shipping
service between Portland and
China and South Korea starting
January 2020, the Port of Port-
land announced Nov. 19.
Located on the Columbia
River on the far northern tip of
North Portland, Terminal 6 is
set up with cranes to load and
unload container ships. But it’s
been largely idle since 2015,
when Hanjin Shipping and Ha-
pag Lloyd America ended reg-
ular service.
A slowdown by members of
International Longshore and
Warehouse Union (ILWU) was
blamed for the pullout, but
other factors increasingly make
container shipping to Portland
a challenge: To make it to Port-
land, ocean-going ships must
get through a difficult crossing
at the mouth of the Columbia
River and then travel 107 miles
through a shipping channel
that’s just 43 feet deep.
The SM Lines ships that will
stop in Portland can carry the
equivalent of 4,500 20-foot
containers, much smaller than
the ultra-large vessels that are
coming to be the standard for
container shipping. The new
larger ships carry the equiva-
lent of 10,000, 15,000 or more
20-foot containers, but they re-
quire a shipping channel that’s
just under 50 feet deep.
To lure SM Lines, Oregon
Governor Kate Brown offered
a public subsidy of $500,000
from the lottery-funded Strate-
gic Reserve Fund, the Oregon-
ian reported. It’s not the first
time the fund has been tapped
for shipping: In 2017, Swire
Shipping was given a $250,000
incentive to begin serving the
terminal once every 35 days,
but it ended service earlier this
year.
CULTURE
In 1900s Portland , child labor was real … and awful
Susan Stoner, retired former at-
torney at Amalgamated Transit
Union Local 757, has just pub-
lished the eighth in a series of
closely-researched historical
detective fiction novels set in
the Portland of the early 20th
century. The series, written un-
der the pen name S.L. Stoner,
follows fictional trade union
operative Sage Adair.
The latest installment is en-
titled Bitter Cry, and brings to
life the issue of child labor. It’s
populated by fictionalized ver-
sions of real-life figures like
Portland mayor Harry Lane, an
anti-corruption reformer, and
Millie Trumbull, a progressive
activist who campaigned
against child labor and served
as the Oregon Child Labor
Commission’s first staff person
and inspector. The book’s title
is taken from The Bitter Cry of
the Children, a 1906 book that
exposed child poverty and mal-
nourishment and horrific con-
ditions among child laborers.
Stoner will be selling and
signing the book at the Oregon
Historical Society’s annual
book event for Oregon authors
Sunday Dec. 8 from noon to 4
p.m. at 1200 SW Park Ave.
She’ll also be interviewed
about the book on KBOO’s La-
bor Radio program Monday,
Dec. 30 from 6 to 6:30 p.m.,
broadcast at 90.7 FM in Port-
land and online at kboo.fm.
And she’ll give a talk and read-
ing from the book Thursday,
Jan. 16 at 7 p.m. at Powell’s
Books on Hawthorne, 3723 SE
Hawthorne Blvd. The book and
the series are available online
via union-represented Pow-
ells.com as well as Amazon
and Barnes and Noble.
Nurses at Willamette Valley
Medical Center in McMinnville
are campaigning to form a union.
After organizing with the Ore-
gon Nurses Association (ONA)
for the past year, on Nov. 22 they
asked the National Labor Rela-
tions Board to hold a union elec-
tion. ONA says more than 131
nurses signed union authoriza-
tion cards —about three-fourths
of the hospital’s roughly 175
nurses.
Situated off Oregon Route 18
across from Chemeketa Com-
munity College, Willamette Val-
ley Medical Center is a 60-bed
acute-care hospital that includes
an emergency room, a birthing
center, and a cancer center. It’s
also one of just two for-profit
hospitals in Oregon.
ONA says safety has dropped
dramatically at Willamette Valley
since the hospital was acquired
by Tennessee-based LifePoint
Health last year. The Leapfrog
Group, a nonprofit health indus-
try watchdog group, rated
Willamette Valley Medical Cen-
ter the worst out of 31 Oregon
hospitals for safety, giving it a
“D” grade in its Fall 2019 report.
That’s down from an “A” grade
as recently as Spring of 2018.
One of the factors in the re-
port: Not enough qualified
nurses.
“We need a strong, collective
voice to advocate for our patients
and improve safety throughout
the hospital,” said Willamette
Valley nurse Corey Mertz in a
union press statement.