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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (June 19, 2020)
PAGE 2 | June 19, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS (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 CORRECTIONS DCTU Machinists are in Lodge 1005.In an article about negotiated furloughs at the City of Portland in our June 5 issue, when listing the unions that make up the District Council of Trade Unions at the City of Portland, we wrongly said city Machinists were in Lodge 63. They’re in Lodge 1005. Those Local 701 members were at Legacy Good Sam, not OHSU! In a photo spread on union-branded face masks, a caption incorrectly identified a crew of Operating Engineers, saying they worked at OHSU, when in fact they work at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospi- tal. We’d like to apologize to the entire crew for that embarrassing screw-up. ...Broadway Corridor From Page 1 Prosper Portland agreed to designate the Healthy Communi- ties Coalition as its negotiating partner to hash out the terms of the CBA. Since formal talks started last summer, coalition rep- resentatives have met more than 18 times with Prosper Portland officials and representatives of the developer, Continuum Part- ners. Continuum, based in Den- ver, was selected by Prosper Port- land’s board in a unanimous April 2018 vote to serve as the agency’s “master development partner” for the Broadway Corridor project. The exact details of Prosper Port- land’s relationship with Contin- uum are a little murky, but basi- cally Continuum gets the exclusive right to buy and de- velop the massive USPS site at fair market value in exchange for committing to the CBA and serv- ing as an uncompensated master plan adviser to Prosper Portland before the work begins. Prosper Portland will cover the costs of demolition of the existing build- ings and installation of roads, wa- ter and sewer connections. In Jan- uary, Prosper Portland also hired Continuum at $70,000 a month to serve as an owner’s agent over- seeing demolition and site prep. The Healthy Communities Coalition wants the CBA to result in good union jobs for local resi- dents — both during the building phase and when the development is complete. The coalition also wants enforceable targets for the participation of women and mi- norities in construction, both as apprentice and journey-level workers and as contractors. And it wants the work to be done by “responsible contractors,” which the coalition defines as compa- nies that provide full family health benefits, that are enrolled in state-certified apprenticeship programs, and that don’t have a record of violating labor and workplace safety laws. Prosper Portland initially aimed to complete the CBA ne- gotiations by April 2019, then June, then December, then Feb- ruary 2020. It’s now June 2020, and the first site prep work is set to begin in July. At its June 10 meeting, Prosper Portland ap- proved a $1.3 million contract with McDonald Excavating, Inc. for demolition and soil remedia- tion of a vehicle maintenance fa- cility on the north side of the property, and a $4.4 million con- tract with O’Neill Walsh to build a temporary post office on the ground floor of an existing park- ing structure so that demolition can begin on the main structure. Both firms are union-signatory. But there’s still no CBA. For months, Coalition mem- bers have been reluctant to go public about their difficulty get- ting an acceptable CBA, not wanting to alienate their negotiat- ing partners while there’s some hope of a deal. “It appears that we really have reached a stuck place,” says Healthy Communities Coalition spokesperson Lisa Hubbard. “We’re pretty frustrated, to say the least, with where things are.” Coalition leaders are drafting a letter to Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Council, which they’ll send in the coming weeks, asking them to intervene in negotiations. Continuum did not respond by press time to messages left by the Labor Press. But individuals with direct or indirect knowledge of the talks describe several sticking points. Continuum is balking at requiring construction contractors to provide full family health ben- efits. There’s also been resistance to having community groups oversee compliance with the tar- gets for women minority and ap- prentice participation. That com- munity oversight has been part of every other CBA on other recent City projects, says Operating En- gineers Local 701 Field Repre- sentative Nate Stokes. “We need to have oversight to make sure contractors are doing what they say they’re going to do,” Stokes said. “To make sure we’re getting the numbers for women, minority and appren- tices, we need to have some sort of accountability.” Coalition members also want Continuum to sign a Project La- bor Agreement (PLA) commit- ting to use union labor. They say Continuum doesn’t want to do that until it selects a general con- tractor, but Continuum did pledge to negotiate a PLA at that point. Continuum is also reportedly raising objections to paying the prevailing wage for construction work. That took coalition nego- tiators by surprise given that Prosper Portland’s November 2017 description of the project— which Continuum based its bid on—said “construction work on the site is subject to Oregon Bu- reau of Labor and Industry (BOLI) prevailing wage rates.” Prosper Portland Executive Director Kimberly Branam says that wording was potentially confusing, because only some parts of the project are actually subject to a legal requirement to pay prevailing wage. Oregon’s prevailing wage law applies to public construction projects and to public-private partnerships Turn to Page 3
