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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 2020)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | Accordionist Adam Young, reed player Mitch Imori, and trombone player Justine Canfield were part of an April 2019 performance of the Tony-Award-winning musical Urinetown by Portland’s Stump- town Stages. When the company is able to resume live theater, its musicians will be part of American Fed- eration of Musicians Local 99. (Photo by Paul Fardig, courtesy of Stumptown Stages) November 6, 2020 | PAGE 7 UNIONIZATION ] SEPT-OCT 2020 The following are Oregon and Southwest Washington workplaces where workers have decided whether to be represented by a union. The thumbs-up symbol means workers will be union- represented. Thumbs-down means they’ll be on their own. “Decert” means a decertification election, where union-represented workers voted whether to remain union. The information comes from the National Labor Relations Board and the Oregon Employment Relations Board. Union election results Employer (Location) Union Yes-No American Eagle Protective Services (The Dalles) SPFPA 13-0 ^ ■ 18 security officers at The Dalles Lock and Dam and the John Day Dam 11-5 ^ CASA of Oregon (Sherwood) CWA Local 7901 ■ 21 workers at a nonprofit rural and farmworker housing developer Veterans Care Centers of Oregon (Lebanon) USW DECERT 59-34 ^ ■ 196 workers at an assisted living center for veterans Albertson’s (Ontario) UFCW Local 555 2-0 ^ ■ 4 customer service center clerks Musical theater, when it reopens, will be union Portland music theater company Stumptown Stages has voluntar- ily recognized Musicians Local 99 to represent its musicians. Stumptown, a nonprofit, had productions of Pippin and Annie scheduled this fall in Portland'5 Centers for the Arts, but the pan- demic forced postponement. Lo- cal 99 Secretary-Treasurer Mont Chris Hubbard says Stumptown Producing Artistic Director Kirk Mouser approached him in June about union representation. “I saw it as a real opportu- nity for us to stand up and sup- port our local musicians,” said Mouser, who is himself a member of the Actors Equity and SAG/AFTRA unions. Stagehands employed by the company are members of IATSE Local 28. Mouser also led Stumptown to reclassify actors and musi- cians as employees, not inde- pendent contractors. Portland Center Stage and several other theaters have also made that change. Union recognition with Lo- cal 99 became official in Sep- tember after Hubbard signed up an overwhelming majority of the 13 musicians who’ve worked on productions the last two years. The two sides ex- pect to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement, hope- fully by the time the theater is able to reopen. As with lots of other live entertainment com- panies, that might have to be after a COVID-19 vaccine is developed. Right now, theaters are closed under the governor’s order through the end of the year, but Mouser said Stump- town Stages is looking at sum- mer 2021 dates for a return, possibly in outdoor venues if a vaccine isn’t widely available by then. —DM Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital (Newport) SEIU Local 49 5-0 ^ ■ 8 phlebotomists ...Oregon OSHA says employers must protect workers from COVID-19 From Page 1 CIO and its affiliated unions helped mobilize hundreds of workers to submit testimony. But Trainor said still stronger rules are needed, particularly for workers in corrections, agriculture, and food process- ing. A September outbreak at Pacific Seafood in Warrenton infected 94 workers. One farmworker who’d been scheduled to take part in the press conference proved to be a case in point—she was unable to attend after testing positive for COVID-19, Trainor said. MK Fletcher, a Health & Safety Specialist at the na- tional AFL-CIO, said Oregon has been more transparent than other states about work- place outbreaks. According to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA), as of Oct. 28, a total of 8,172 Oregon workers had contracted the virus on the job, and 35 of them have died from it. COVID-19 infections re- sulting from workplace out- breaks now account for nearly 20% of current reported cases in Oregon. As of Oct. 28 there were ac- tive outbreaks under way at 76 Oregon workplaces. The biggest were at correctional institutions and food process- ing facilities. State prisons in Ontario, Pendleton, Umatilla and Salem were four of the top five current hotspots, totaling 1,188 cases as of Oct. 28. Po- tato processor Lamb Weston plants in Hermiston and Boardman, the Amazon ware- house in Troutdale, and the Walmart Distribution Center in Hermison were also in the top 10. COVID-19 cases are on the rise, and if the new OSHA rules are to have an impact, employers will have to return to greater vigilance. Matt Calzia, a registered nurse on staff at the Oregon Nurses As- sociation, warned that nurses have been seeing their em- ployers adopting a more cava- lier attitude as the pandemic wears on. BECOME A SAFETY STEWARD See the complete rule at osha.oregon.gov/covid19
