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March 6, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
UNION DEMOCRACY
Meet Jeff Gritz, new Laborers district council director
The Oregon and Southern Idaho
District Council of Laborers has
a new leader and a new crew.
Last September, Jeff Gritz of
Hermiston was appointed by
District Council delegates to re-
place business manager Greg
Held, who resigned.
Gritz, 46, is a 28-year union
member and lives in Hermiston.
Since taking the helm at the La-
borers District Council, he’s as-
sembled a team that he hopes
will help the district grow in
members and power: Veteran
organizer Ben Nelson was
brought back to the District
Council to lead external organ-
izing, and labor lobbyist Chris
Hewitt, a former Oregon AFL-
CIO staff member, was hired
over from the Oregon Nurses
Association to head up the La-
borers’ political efforts.
Laborers members do many
kinds of work. They bring the
brawn to construction as hod
carriers for trades like bricklay-
ing. They also work as flaggers.
And they’re a big part of road
and heavy highway crews, rak-
ing and grading asphalt.
Representing 3,941 members
in all, the Oregon and Southern
Idaho District Council of Labor-
ers coordinates the work of three
locals affiliated with the Labor-
ers International Union of North
America (LiUNA) — construc-
tion/highway locals Local 737
in Oregon and Local 155 in
Idaho, and public sector Local
483 based in Portland.
Gritz says his priorities for
the District Council include im-
proving relations with other
building trades unions, increas-
ing its participation and impact
in politics, and growing LiUNA
membership. There’s plenty of
room to grow: Contractors sig-
natory with the Laborers Union
face constant competition with
non-union employers that pay
lower wages and benefits.
Gritz is the third generation in
his family to lead the Laborers
Union in Eastern Oregon. His
grandfather George H. Gritz
was business manager of Labor-
ers Local 682, which covered
Northeast Oregon, starting in
1953. His father George D.
Gritz followed. Jeff joined the
union in 1992 right after gradu-
ating from Hermiston High
School. He worked as a laborer
on the Trans-Canada Pipeline,
and on co-generation plants, the
BHP steel mill in Kalama and
constructing incineration facili-
ties at Umatilla Chemical De-
pot. After his dad retired in
2003, Jeff Gritz was hired as a
union business representative,
visiting job sites to enforce con-
tracts. By then Local 682 had
merged with a Central Oregon
local to become Local 121.
Gritz became Local 121 busi-
ness manager in 2005, and when
Local 121 merged with two oth-
ers to form statewide Local 737
in 2015, he became its Eastern
Oregon business rep, and later
its assistant business manager.
He also serves as a trustee over-
seeing several pension and
health funds.
An avid hunter and fisher, he
played an active role around
Hermiston in the Little League
and 4H organizations, and has
served as president of the
Pendleton Building Trades
council. For now, work means a
2.5-hour drive from Gritz’ home
in Hermiston and a week spent
in temporary lodgings, returning
to his wife and family on the
weekends. Gritz said he hopes
soon to find something more
permanent in the Portland area.
Gritz expects to serve the re-
mainder of Held’s term, which
expires August 2022.