PAGE 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.