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