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