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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 2020)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | February 21, 2020 | PAGE 7 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING NATIONAL Boeing and SPEEA announce tentative contract extension Trump NLRB marches back worker gains A four-year agreement would extend the contract with engi- neering and technical profes- sionals through October 2026. The Boeing Company reached a tentative agreement Feb. 13 with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) on a new four-year contract extension that would run through 2026, cover- ing approximately 18,000 engi- neering and technical employ- ees, nearly all of whom are in Washington and Oregon. SPEEA’s Executive Board has endorsed the offer, which members will vote on from Feb. 24 to March 9, 2020 via mail-in ballots. The current contract isn’t set to expire until 2022. Highlights of the agreement: Annual salary adjustment Boeing and SPEEA will establish fixed salary adjustment funds for each year, 2020 through 2026, replacing the prior indexed formula. Paid leave Boeing will apply the company's existing 12-week Paid Parental Leave policy to SPEEA-represented employees. By virtue of the contract extension, SPEEA-represented employees in Washington will now also be covered by the Washington Paid Family and Medical Leave Act. Health benefits No change in plan design for medical, dental and vision plans. Beginning 2023, employees' contributions will be based upon their salary. Employee Incentive Plan (EIP)The Employee Incentive Plan target will be raised from 3.85% of eligible earnings to 5% of eligible earnings. WORKERS’ RIGHTS Is there forced labor in Oregon? New task force aims to find out Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum has appointed a 16- member Labor Trafficking Task Force to study labor trafficking across the state and identify ways the Legislature and other leaders can tackle the issue. Ap- pointees include Matt Swanson, political director of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, and Sonia Ramirez, Wage and Hour administrator for the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and a former lob- byist for North America’s Build- ing Trades Unions. The task force will be co-chaired by Ore- gon State Senator Kathleen Tay- lor, and in addition to organized labor will include immigration attorneys, law enforcement, dis- trict attorneys, representatives from the Mexican Consulate, and other state agencies. Rosenblum announced the new task force Jan. 10 at the Oregon DOJ’s second annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day event in Salem. “Human trafficking includes both sex trafficking and labor trafficking, but almost all of our public awareness focuses on sex trafficking,” Rosenblum said. “What we hear so far is that la- bor trafficking is very real, and it is happening under the radar in all corners of the state. I want this task force to dig into this ter- rible crime. All sources suggest we lack the tools to identify, in- vestigate, and prosecute labor trafficking in our communities. We need to change that.” Labor trafficking includes us- ing threats of violence and coer- cion to force a person to work against their will, sometimes with no or little pay or inhumane conditions. Industries where la- bor trafficking may exist include domestic servants, farmworkers, factory workers, and other day laborers. According to the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission there have been no prosecutions of labor trafficking under the relevant crime of “involuntary servitude” anywhere in the state. The new task force will meet throughout 2020 and will make recommendations for consider- ation by the Oregon Legislature in the 2021 session. “While significant work has been done to understand the im- pact of labor trafficking at the national level, there has been no organized attempt to gather in- formation in Oregon. We hope to take a comprehensive view of the problem, and really look at how we can work to address this issue,” said Attorney General Rosenblum. Terms of the Democrats on the Board have run out, and Trump is in no hurry to replace them. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) — responsible for protecting workers right to join or form a union — is now led by two management-side lawyers and a former congres- sional staffer — all Trump-ap- pointed Republicans. The NLRB is an independent federal agency with a mission to uphold workers’ right to form unions and bargain collectively. It’s governed by a five-person board and a general counsel, all of whom are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Board members are ap- pointed to five-year staggered terms, which means one mem- ber’s term expires each year. Unlike many other federal agen- cies, members can’t remain on the board until a successor is confirmed. Under the law that created it, the president gets to appoint three board members from his own party and two from the other major party. But President Donald Trump has yet to nominate anyone to succeed two Democrats ap- pointed by Barack Obama whose terms expired. Mark Pearce was termed out in Au- gust 2018, and Lauren McFer- ran’s term expired Dec. 16, 2019. As a result, the NLRB has only Republican appointees for the first time in its 85-year history. In December, the Trump NLRB announced a decision that significantly lengthens the time between an NLRB regional director’s order that there be a union election, and the election itself. It overturns a 2014 Obama-era NLRB that elections be held as soon as possible— within 25 to 30 days of the de- termination by a regional direc- tor. In plain English, the new NLRB decision gives employ- ers more time to stall elections and challenge who can vote and when. The union election rules deci- sion was published Dec. 18 in the Federal Register, to be turned into a federal regulation. That sets it in stone and makes it tougher to reverse in the fu- ture, reported Press Associates Inc. To add insult to injury, the GOPers declared an “emer- gency” justifying no public comments. The final rule goes into effect April 16, 2020. In other recent NLRB deci- sions, the Republican majority ruled that employers may re- strict the ability of employees to use work email outside of work time to discuss workplace is- sues, overruling a 2014 decision in Purple Communications, Inc. In that case, filed by CWA, the Democrat-controlled NLRB ruled in favor of the workers, recognizing that email has be- come a critical means of com- munication about working con- ditions and other issues. In Apogee Retail LLC d/b/a Unique Thrift Store, the NLRB ruled that employers can pre- vent workers from discussing ongoing workplace investiga- tions into illegal or unethical be- havior, such as sexual harass- ment. In Valley Hospital Medical Center, the NLRB ruled that employers can stop collecting union dues from members’ pay- checks upon expiration of a col- lective bargaining agreement. This decision allows employers to interfere with members’ rela- tionship with their union and makes it difficult for members to remain in good standing so that they can vote on union is- sues. Worker’s with accepted WC claims still benefit from having an attorney. Keep the claim on track. Don’t call too late. Raymond Thomas James Coon Cynthia Newton Chris Frost www.tcnf.legal Sydney Montanaro Scott Sell Chris Thomas 820 SW Second Ave., Suite 200, Portland, OR 97204
