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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (April 17, 2020)
PAGE 2 | April 17, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ...COVID-19 is impacting construction From Page 1 (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: https://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Senior staff reporter: Don McIntosh Office manager: Jill Lukens Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $15 a year for union members, $23 a year for all others. Pay by credit card online at nwlaborpress.org/subscribe, or send a check to our mailing address (above) along with your name, address and union affiliation, if any. Group rates of 48 cents an issue per member — $11.52 a year are available for 25 or more subscriptions; call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: If you move, let us know at nwlaborpress.org/subscriber-services or by mail at our mailing address (above). Be sure to provide your old and new addresses and the name/number of your local union. Please allow three weeks for the change to take effect. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 OREGON RESIDENTS THE LAST DAY TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THE MAY PRIMARY IS APRIL 28. TO REGISTER GO TO : HTTPS://SOS.OREGON.GOV/ VOTING/PAGES/REGISTRATION. ASPX?LANG=EN! Low Prices! Coats, etc. Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6 president Dan Drinkward says his company is deploying staff in blue vests to serve as “social distancing coaches” on con- struction sites to encourage safe practices. Hoffman is also lim- iting capacity in personnel lifts and elevators, limiting the use of shared tools and sanitizing them between uses, dramatically in- creasing handwashing stations and toilet facilities, and stagger- ing start times and lunch times to limit the number of workers who come on or off the job or eat lunch together at any one time. Large stand-up shift meet- ings and safety meetings are be- ing eliminated; instead, superin- tendents issue the orders of the day to smaller groups of fore- men, and they relay that to workers they supervise. At Intel, where Hoffman is the general contractor, spots at lunch tables are taped to keep workers from sitting shoulder to shoulder. To relieve crowding on shuttle buses, construction workers are being directed to use Intel’s closer-in parking lots, which were made vacant when white collar employees were told to work from home. Some project owners deter- mined that more drastic action was called for. Adidas shut down its headquarters expan- sion project for the time being. So did Facebook with its data center project in Prineville, and the company offered $4,000 payment to construction work- ers who were sent home. To be sure, some building trades union members are also staying home, and individual workers and in some cases whole crews are walking off the job. And some of those who re- main are there because they need the money, or worry about the consequences. “It can be tough for a rank- and-file member to make that call,” Culver says. “Because the job might finish while you’re off. And for the next job, the contractor might assemble a crew from those who were there at the end of the last job, and there might not be a job for you to return to.” Elsewhere in the country, some unions have pulled their members off jobs altogether. In Massachusetts and across New England, the Painters and Car- penters unions directed their combined 17,000 members to stop working as of April 6, ex- WHAT’S YOUR EXPERIENCE? Should construction work continue? What steps are you taking to keep safe? Share your experience with us at editor@nwlaborpress.org cept for those building health care facilities to address the COVID-19 crisis. And the Mas- sachusetts Building Trades Council voted unanimously to call on the governor to suspend all non-emergency construction. In Oregon, the state building trades council has focused on raising safety awareness on the job. It created a joint COVID-19 task force made up of several dozen union and employer rep- resentatives who meet online twice a week. A subcommittee of the task force is conducting scheduled visits to construction work sites. Accompanied by an OSHA inspector, delegations of five to seven task force mem- bers started visiting sites this week to verify that contractors and workers are abiding by safety practices that are recom- mended to prevent the spread of COVID-19. “Our members’ wellbeing is our number one priority,” Ore- gon Building Trades Executive Secretary Robert Camarillo told the Labor Press. “Work is our second priority. We’re not will- ing to sacrifice anybody.” Operating Engineers Local 701 Business Manager Jim An- derson said some of his mem- bers are taking voluntary layoff to stay safe or to take care of kids who are home because of school and daycare closures, but Local 701’s out-of-work list isn’t bigger than usual at this time of year. And members who do take a layoff tend to have banked hours that allow them to maintain union-provided health insurance. Employer health con- tributions for all hours over 120 worked in a month go into a re- serve, and members can bank up to six months of health ben- efits. Meanwhile, Local 701’s hall is closed to visitors, regular union meetings are cancelled, and the training center classes are cancelled for now, but reps are as busy as ever, focused on fostering safe practices like so- cial distancing. “As long as it’s a safe work- ing environment, then let’s keep working,” Anderson said. “It all boils down to communication with the members and the con- tractors.”
