NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
IATSE 488 faces near total job loss
Several hundred Oregon mem-
bers of IATSE Local 488 were
already facing a scarcity of
work: Grimm and several other
locally-produced TV shows
ended, and in general, the shift to
streaming television has meant
shorter shoots and seasons with
fewer episodes. COVID-19
made matters worse, shutting
down projects statewide by mid-
March.
“Our entire membership is
out of work,” said Local 488
Vice President Cdavid Cottrill.
At a television studio space in
Clackamas, about 120 members
were expecting another six to
nine weeks of work on a TBS
series called “Chad,” while 80
to 90 more were gearing up to
produce a pilot called “Crazy
For You” for NBC. Now they’re
out of work, along with smaller
crews who were expecting to
work on a Marvel Hulu series
called “Omens” in Portland and
a Netflix project with Sandra
Bullock at a correctional facility
in Madras.
Cottrill is meeting online
weekly with a COVID task
force with representatives of the
Oregon Media Production Asso-
ciation and Oregon Film. Of
their own accord, nearly all the
employers in the industry de-
cided to keep those who were
already employed on the payroll
for two weeks. But they’ll need
to go on unemployment after
that, and there’s no telling when
their projects will resume pro-
duction. Some members, classi-
fied as independent contractors,
haven’t been eligible for unem-
ployment benefits, but Congress
has temporarily expanded un-
employment compensation to
them as well.
The union is surveying mem-
bers about the impact of the cri-
sis, and on April 2, helped de-
liver food boxes to members
who are most in need.
Meanwhile, the IATSE inter-
national put out a call for mem-
bers who work in costume and
wardrobe departments to volun-
teer to produce protective masks
for health care workers and oth-
ers who need them. It’s also
launching a nationwide mutual
aid initiative called CARES
(Coronavirus Active Response
and Engagement Service) in
which younger members deliver
groceries, prescriptions, and
other necessary supplies to older
and more vulnerable members
and retirees who face greater
risk going out.
NEW LOOK OF THE SEASON: Rebecca Lewis—Good & Welfare Com-
mittee chair at International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees
(IATSE) Local 28—wears a cat-patterned mask made by a volunteer
committee of union workers who work in wardrobe departments. Sev-
eral dozen IATSE Local 28 members who work in the wardrobe depart-
ment are volunteering to make protective masks for health care work-
ers—alongside members of IATSE Local 488 and SAG-AFTRA. From
Southwest Washington to The Dalles, hospitals and home health care
workers are facing a shortage of masks, and are calling for donations.
Volunteers use close-weave cotton fabric to make the masks, based on
a pattern and instructions put out by Deaconess Hospital in Indiana.
The masks union volunteers are making aren’t medical grade and are
not guaranteed to prevent any illness, but they can be used so that
more medical grade masks are available to front line workers. On March
16, a batch was delivered to the Oregon Veterans Home in The Dalles.
Others have gone to grocery workers, or to Portland Public Schools
maintenance workers who are still on the job. “It’s great that we’re able
to pitch in,” Lewis said, “and we’re glad to be able to do it, but it’s also
really upsetting to a lot us that in the richest country in the world, peo-
ple are sewing protective equipment for medical professionals — in
their homes.”
April 3, 2020 | PAGE 9
JOBS
FERC approves Jordan Cove project
The Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission (FERC) voted 2-
1 March 19 to approve the la-
bor-backed Jordan Cove lique-
fied natural gas export terminal
and Pacific Connector Gas
Pipeline in Coos Bay on Ore-
gon’s south coast.
The vote came less than two
months after Pembina Corp. —
the Canadian company behind
the proposed $10 billion proj-
ect—withdrew an application for
a key state permit over concerns
that it would be rejected. Pem-
bina wants to build a 229-mile-
long pipeline to a new liquefied
natural gas export terminal utiliz-
ing the National Construction
Agreement of North America
Building Trades Unions. The
project, they say, will create
thousands of family-wage union
construction jobs, provide oppor-
tunities for apprentices in all
trades, and contribute more than
$100 million in state and local
taxes every year.
“We’re happy to see this proj-
ect move forward. It has the po-
tential to create much-needed
family-wage jobs on the South-
ern Oregon coast,” said Robert
Camarillo, executive secretary
of the Oregon State Building
Trades Council. “We’ll continue
to support Jordan Cove to
fruition any way that we can.”
Harry Andersen, Pembina’s
senior vice president and chief
legal officer, said FERC’s ap-
proval represents the most sig-
nificant step forward for Jordan
Cove since Pembina acquired
the project in 2017.
“The FERC’s decision is due
in no small part to our many
supporters who have turned out
time and time again to voice
their support for Jordan Cove
and to show that the project is in
the public interest, including in
Southern Oregon and the Rock-
ies Basin,” Anderson said.
But even with FERC’s ap-
proval, the project currently
doesn’t have a green light from
Oregon state agencies: It was
denied a clean water permit by
the Department of Environmen-
tal Quality (DEQ); it withdrew
its permit applications to the
Department of State Lands; and
it received an objection from the
Department of Land Conserva-
tion and Development (DLCD)
on the grounds that the project
was inconsistent with the
Coastal Zone Management Act.
Boost Southern Oregon, a
coalition of community leaders,
small local businesses, organi-
zations, labor, and elected offi-
cials, said Jordan Cove will con-
tinue to obtain all the necessary
permits to move forward.
“This now means that all lo-
cal and federal permits have
been approved. There is still
work to be done, but this is one
step closer,” the group said.
Following FERC’s vote on
March 19, Pembina filed a no-
tice of appeal to the finding by
DLCD. The Portland Business
Journal reported that to win on
appeal, federal statute requires a
determination by U.S. Com-
merce Secretary Wilbur Ross
that the project will bring more
good than harm or is “necessary
in the interest of national secu-
rity.”
In the notice of appeal, Pem-
bina argued both points: “The
record contains sufficient infor-
mation to permit the Secretary
to balance the coastal effects
against the strong national inter-
est furthered by the project.
When considered either sepa-
rately or cumulatively, the pro-
ject’s adverse coastal effects are
outweighed by the strong na-
tional interest that the project
furthers.”
The FERC vote didn’t sit
well with Oregon Gov. Kate
Brown or U.S. Sen. Ron
Wyden, who for the first time
announced opposition to the
project.
In a press statement, Brown
pointed to the timing of the vote
in the midst of the worldwide
COVID-19 pandemic.
“Given a national and state
emergency, in which the federal
government and its agencies are
unable to fulfill their basic re-
sponsibility to keep citizens
safe, it is stunning that the
FERC moved forward on this
decision,” she said.
Brown said her position on
the project has always been to
ensure the neutrality and fair-
ness of state permitting
processes as part of her commit-
ment to uphold the requirements
of Oregon law.
“I’ve received enormous crit-
icism for this position, but I
want to be clear: Defending
these processes defends every-
one’s right to be heard—from a
tradesperson hoping to work on
the project, to a landholder
along the pipeline route, to citi-
zens concerned about the rami-
fications of this project on our
climate or in the event of an
earthquake or tsunami on the
coast.
“As the FERC chair stated
earlier, it is now incumbent on
the company to secure all state
permits,” Brown said, adding
that she has consulted with the
state’s lawyers to consider all
appropriate legal action to as-
sure the Oregon permitting
processes are followed.
“A stacked and incomplete
FERC approved the controver-
sial and complicated Jordan
Cove project,” Wyden said.
“There was no rush. A balanced
and full FERC should have
made the decision.”
The five-member Commis-
sion has been operating with
two vacancies for more than
year, which prompted Wyden to
request that the agency wait un-
til it had a full board of commis-
sioners before voting on Jordan
Cove. Commissioners voted 2-
1, with Chair Neil Chatterjee
and Bernard McNamee in favor
and Richard Glick voting
against.
On March 12, the U.S. Sen-
ate confirmed James Danly to
the Commission, giving Repub-
licans a 3-1 majority. Danly was
confirmed on a mostly party
line vote. He did not cast a vote
on the Jordan Cove project.