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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 20, 2019)
PAGE 8 | December 20, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS JOBS Close to 100 layoffs at Owens-Brockway glass A new factory in Mexico, and a decline in local bottle orders, are factors in idling a furnace. Ohio-based Owens-Brockway is laying off 93 union mem- bers at its Northeast Portland glass plant starting Dec. 30. Six of them are members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 330; the other 87 are in Local 112M in the GMP Council of United Steelwork- ers. [GMP stands for Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers, which merged with USW in 2016.] Located at 9710 N.E. Glass Plant Road just west of I-205 and North of Killingsworth, the Owens-Brockway plant is very distinctive looking, with a roof shaped like the head of a wrench. That’s common with glass plants, for ventilation. The plant makes bottles for beer and wine, but with orders down, the company is indefi- nitely idling one of its furnaces. Because the company has opened a new facility in Mex- ico, trade is considered a fac- tor in the layoff, and an appli- cation for benefits under the Trade Act program is pending. The federally funded program helps workers who have lost their jobs as a result of foreign competition, with extended unemployment benefits, train- ing funds, a wage subsidy for older workers, and other ben- efits. Seated from left to right: 2nd Vice President Ed Barnes, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Bob Tackett, and President Jeff Anderson; standing from left to right: Will Lukens, Tracey Powers, Darren Hamann, Mike Bridges, Scott Zadow, Jeff Cuellar, 1st Vice President Everice Moro, Willy Myers, Jaimie Ro- driguez, Ellen Ino, Lucy Carrier, and Joe Esmond. Not pictured: Dave Tully, Rose Etta Venetucci, and Mike Pucik. F ROM T HE O FFICERS AND E XECUTIVE B OARD OF THE N ORTHWEST O REGON L ABOR C OUNCIL Democrats–and Herrera-Beutler–vote to cut drug prices House Democrats want to lower drug prices. House Republicans do not. That’s about the only possible takeaway from a Dec. 12 vote on House Resolution 3, entitled the Lower Drug Costs Now Act, which passed 230- 192. To be fair, out of 193 Re- publicans, two of them did join all 228 House Democrats in vot- ing for the bill, and one of those was Southwest Washington Re- publican Congresswoman Jamie Herrera-Beutler. The bill allows Medicare to negotiate with drug companies to get lower prices on insulin and single-source brand-name drugs that don’t have generic versions (Incredibly, current law prohibits Medicare from using its bargaining power to get a good deal on the pharmaceuti- cals it pays for). The bill also caps out-of-pocket drug ex- penses for Medicare beneficiar- ies at $2,000 a year and elimi- nates beneficiary cost-sharing above that. And it creates an in- ternational pricing index and prohibit companies from charg- ing over 20% more for the same drug in the United States than abroad. The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate, which a Republican ma- jority currently controls. When he was running for president in 2016, Donald Trump said he supported letting Medicare ne- gotiate for lower drug prices. But the White House in a Dec. 10 statement said the bill would reduce drug companies’ incen- tive to bring new drugs to mar- ket, and pledged that Trump would veto it if it passes the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he will block it. HOW YOUR REP VOTED FOR: Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader, Jamie Herrera-Beutler AGAINST: Greg Walden
