Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current, August 21, 2020, Image 30

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Northwest labor press., August 21, 2020, Page 30, Image 30

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Newspaper Page TextPAGE 30 | August 21, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS to Portland. Farm Workers win 17-year let- tuce fight at Bruce Church. Musicians Local 99 strikes Oregon Symphony for 17 days, first strike in 100 years. Labor’s effort to increase the state’s minimum wage to highest in the nation is successful at the ballot box. 1997: Three Iron Workers killed when parking garage structure at Portland International Air- port collapses. Teamsters energize national labor movement with strike victory at UPS. Pendleton Woolen Mills closes Oregon plant and moves production to Mexico. Strikes at Kaiser Permanente involve UFCW, Service Employees and Oregon Federation of Nurses. Pride at Work, a national coalition of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender work- ers and their supporters, becomes an AFL- CIO constituency group. 1998: Judy O’Con- nor first woman elected executive secretary-treasurer of Northwest Oregon La- bor Council. Oregon’s farmworkers union, PCUN, signs its first contract on Cesar Chavez Day March 31 with Natures’ Fountain Farm in Albany. CWA members make con- tract gains in wake of 18-day strike at US West Communications. Oregon voters reject “paycheck deception” ballot measure in- tended to weaken public employee unions. 1999: Irv Fletcher retires after 18 years as president of the Oregon AFL-CIO; Tim Nes- bitt elected to succeed him. Union volunteers build largest outdoor skatepark in the West at Keizer, near Salem. 50,000 working family activists take to Seattle streets to protest against World Trade Organization. 2000: Workers at Powell’s Books ratify first union contract, becoming Local 5 of International Longshore and Warehouse Union. Oregon voters reject all six ballot measures spon- sored by anti-union activist Bill Sizemore. En- abled by deregulation, companies like Enron manipulate the electricity market, causing a severe spike in West Coast electricity prices; over 4,000 Northwest workers in aluminum and other industries lose union jobs. Kaiser The union-built Trojan Nuclear Power Plant near Rainier was closed in 1999 after 24 years of generating electricity. The Labor Press was there when the plant’s nuclear core was transported up the Columbia River for storage at Hanford. Permanente and labor finalize national con- tract. New Portland Classical Chinese Gar- den is union-built. OPEIU Local 11 401(k) pension trust sues Capital Consultants after feds take over money manager’s operations. Paramount Hotel signs union contract with HERE Local 9. In the closest presidential election since 1876, George W. Bush elected president even though Al Gore wins popular vote. Dot-com bubble bursts, causing turmoil in financial markets. 2001: Sept. 11 terrorist attacks take massive toll on America’s work- ing families. In the wake of the 9/1, Congress bails out airlines, but does nothing for 100,000 laid-off airline workers. 12,000 Ore- gon home care workers join SEIU Local 503. CWA inks first contract at AT&T Broadband. Carpenters Union pulls out of the AFL-CIO. Afghanistan war begins. Enron files for Chap- ter 11 bankruptcy protection. 2002: At OHSU, 1,500 nurses win raises after a 56-day strike. Portland Public Schools fires its 300 custodi- ans, replacing them with a private janitorial contractor. Oregon voters approve union- backed ballot measures tying minimum wage increases to the cost of living. IBEW Local 48 member Dan Gardner elected Oregon labor commissioner. Former Fire Fighters Local 43 president Randy Leonard elected to Portland City Council. Jury finds that Bill Sizemore’s CWA and Jobs with Justice sponsored the 1999 B.B. King Blues Festival in Portland. It was the ﬁrst labor-pro- duced concert of its kind, with workers setting up display booths and handing out leaﬂets on various worker-related issues. PORTLAND’S FINAL FREIGHTLINER After announcing it will build a sec- ond truck plant in Mexico, Daimler halts production of Freightliner brand trucks at its Portland plant in 2007.