nOrthwest lABOr press |
Climate justice group goes antiunion
By noah wass
When workers at the Center for
Sustainable Economy (CSE)
went public with their union,
the last thing they expected was
for the progressive think tank
to hire a union-busting law firm
and threaten to fire one of their
own. But that’s exactly what
happened after all five staff
members at the Portland-based
climate justice think tank an-
nounced their plan to join
Communications Workers of
America (CWA) Local 7901 at
a June 24 staff meeting.
CSE management responded
two days later, saying they can’t
recognize the union because one
of the union supporters, staff at-
torney Nick Caleb, is a supervi-
sor and thus can’t legally be in-
cluded in the bargaining unit.
Management then sus-
pended Caleb until further no-
tice, threatened to fire him if he
talks with co-workers or the
public about the union, and
warned him they may file an
ethics complaint against him
with the Oregon State Bar. All
that’s according to a June 30
unfair labor practice charge
CWA Local 7901 filed with the
National Labor Relations
Board.
CSE also hired Bullard Law,
which is infamous in Portland
labor circles as a law firm spe-
cializing in union avoidance.
None of that sat well with
CSE board member Jeri
Jimenez, a former union organ-
izer and current board member
of Portland Jobs with Justice.
Jimenez says that during a
board conference call, board
members had agreed to send a
letter formally recognizing the
union. The next time they
heard from senior manage-
ment, board members were in-
structed not to speak to anyone
about the union, and were no-
tified that CSE had paid $7,500
to retain Bullard Law.
Hearing that, Jimenez re-
signed from the board June 30.
“I don’t know how we got
from voluntarily accepting the
union to not supporting them,”
Jimenez wrote in her resigna-
tion letter ... You operated out
of fear instead of trust.”
CSE Director Daphne
Wysham said in an email that
CSE respects its employees’
rights to form a union, “if that
is what they choose.
“The law sets forth a process
for that to happen, and it is our
understanding that in this case
the correct legal process was
not followed. Those issues are
currently being litigated in
front of the NLRB, and we will
abide by the outcome of that
process.”
“Whether they actually be-
lieve that or whether it’s a con-
venient legal argument, I don’t
know,” said Local 7901 Presi-
dent A.J. Mendoza. “But that is
not a response indicative of a
‘high road’ employer.”
An online petition signed by
community supporters called
on CSE to drop Bullard Law
and recognize the union.
The bad publicity may have
had some effect. Wysham told
the Labor Press by phone July
13 that CSE has dropped
Bullard Law and will be seek-
ing new legal counsel that is
not anti-union.
“WHAT DOES LABOR WANT? WE WANT MORE SCHOOLHOUSES AND LESS JAILS, MORE
BOOKS AND LESS ARSENALS, MORE LEARNING AND LESS VICE, MORE CONSTANT WORK
AND LESS CRIME, MORE LEISURE AND LESS GREED, MORE JUSTICE AND LESS REVENGE.”
— AFL FOUNDER SAMUEL GOMPERS, 1893
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July 17, 2020 | pAge 3
unIOnIzAtIOn ] mAy-june 2020
The following are Oregon and SW Washington workplaces where workers have decided whether to
be union-represented. The thumbs-up symbol means workers will be union-represented. The info
comes from the National Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board.
union election results
Employer (Location) Union
Yes-No
peacehealth sacred heart hospital (Springfield) Ore. Nurses Assn. 3-0
^
■ 5 hospitalist nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists at RiverBend and University District
Asplundh tree exper t (Sherwood) IBEW Local 125
1-0
^
■ 1 permission/planner employee who works on the property of Pacific Power
furloughed workers tighten belts
waiting for workshare benefits
It seemed like a win-win when
unions approved the furloughs,
but benefits are slow to arrive.
When Portland Federation of
School Professionals Local 111
President Belinda Reagan first
heard about the Work Share pro-
gram, she saw it as a win-win.
Her fellow union members —
support workers at Portland Pub-
lic Schools — would be fur-
loughed one day a week starting
May 4 and save the district
money at a time of looming
budget cuts, and in return would
collect a day’s worth of weekly
unemployment insurance plus
the $600 weekly COVID unem-
ployment bonus. At the time,
they were told unemployment
checks would start in two weeks.
Two months later, she wishes
she’d known that members
would face belt-tightening before
the promised aid would arrive.
When unemployment checks
still hadn’t arrived at the begin-
ning of July, Reagan says she
heard from at least 65 members.
Their hardship is real. “For
people who are living on $14,
$16 an hour, to lose that money
on furlough, it’s devastating,”
Reagan said. “We have a lot of
single mothers working as edu-
cation assistants at very low
salaries.”
Still, Reagan said she doesn’t
regret agreeing to the furlough:
The union’s executive board had
just a few days to decide, and
members will come out ahead in
the end. They’ll still get every-
thing they were promised once
Employment Department em-
ployees get through the backlog.
The tardy payments aren’t arriv-
ing in one lump sum. The first
checks began to arrive the sec-
ond week of July.
Workers at the City of Portland
are in similar straits: Furloughs
cut their pay at the beginning of
June, and the City has been sub-
mitting claims to the Employ-
ment Department, but workers
were still waiting for unemploy-
ment checks as of mid-July.
“Nobody has any benefits
yet,” said Rob Martineau, pres-
ident of AFSCME Local 189,
the largest union at the City of
Portland. “There’s definitely
frustration.”
“We kind of expect people
will be done with their furloughs
before they see any unemploy-
ment benefits,” Martineau said.