NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | May 21, 2021 | PAGE 7
Who’s on our side?
By Graham Trainor Oregon AFL-CIO President
Legislature must prioritize essential worker pay
When the American Rescue Plan Act
(ARPA) passed earlier this year, it sig-
naled a new direction for our nation’s
recovery from the COVID-19 pan-
demic. ARPA is the shot in the arm this
country needed, and it could not have
come soon enough. For over a year
workers have shouldered the massive
burden of the pandemic. And yet, as
they have been called heroes by politi-
cians, bosses and CEOs, the actions and
support for essential and frontline
workers has been anything but heroic.
As part of ARPA, Oregon will re-
ceive billions in federal dollars to help
Oregonians through the rest of the pan-
demic. The funds are intended, in part,
to support frontline and essential work-
ers as a way to honor them for the 14
months of hell they have endured. This
is an opportunity for our state to put
words into action and invest in the
heroic workers who have kept our com-
munities both functioning and safe
since Day One of the pandemic. As any
Oregonian knows, this year has been
especially difficult due to historic wild-
fires that slashed apart wide swaths of
our state. We need to step up for every-
one who has stood up for us.
Recently, the CDC upended work-
place practices by announcing that vac-
cinated individuals can be unmasked
indoors. This overnight and abrupt
change has the potential to have nega-
tive impacts on immunocompromised
workers who cannot be vaccinated,
adding to the growing concern regard-
ing breakthrough cases (COVID-19
cases contracted by fully vaccinated in-
dividuals) and the potential transmis-
sion from vaccinated individuals to
those who cannot be vaccinated yet,
like children. Our state must recognize
the undue burden this change continues
to place on frontline and essential
workers and ensure OR-OSHA protec-
tions are strengthened, workers have
access to essential worker pay, and pro-
vide additional protections for immuno-
compromised workers. The Oregon
Health Authority also has the ability to
and should frequently inform the public
about the impacts of the CDC’s new
guidelines as they pertain to vaccina-
tion rates and breakthrough cases.
Working people and families have
kept Oregon running through more than
a year of uncertainty. Among frontline
and essential workers, workers of color
are overrepresented: Nearly a third are
Black workers and close to 40% are
Latinx workers. What is also very
telling is that nearly half of essential
workers do not even earn a living wage.
They have put their lives on the line to
support themselves and their families,
often incurring additional costs to keep
working in person when many of us
were able to work from home. They
have been forced into making sacrifices
no one should have to make in order to
earn a living.
Our frontline and essential workers
deserve better. They deserve to be hon-
ored and supported—which is exactly
what some of the funding from the
ARPA is supposed to be used for. Right
now, Oregon lawmakers are deciding
how to use those funds, and there are
two very different approaches being
considered. One would put these dol-
lars into the hands of the diverse front-
line and essential workers, which
means those dollars go right back into
Oregon’s economy, support working
families, and show overdue respect to
the people who have kept us moving
since March 2020. The other approach
would put disproportionate amounts of
these federal dollars into reserves in-
stead. The first approach is widely sup-
ported. According to a survey con-
ducted last year, a majority of Ameri-
cans believe that frontline workers
should receive hazard pay.
The sacrifices and toil by frontline
and essential workers have not only
kept our state running, they have also
kept us safe. Oregon has consistently
ranked among states with the fewest
COVID-19 cases in the country. Our
success is all thanks to the workers who
not only clocked in each day but did so
as safely as they could. They wore
masks, fought hard for policies to make
work safe, and then had to fight even
harder for prioritization in our state’s
vaccination schedule.
When the pandemic is all but a mem-
ory, I hope our lawmakers can be proud
that they decided to stand up for the
people who carried us through it all. To
spend this long fighting for safety and
to be vaccinated just to be safe enough
to go to work is truly heroic. Let’s do
our heroes justice by putting essential
workers who have kept us safe, fed,
clean and healthy first. Let’s make sure
that Oregon’s legacy during this time is
one to be proud of.
The Oregon AFL-CIO is a 138,000-member-strong
federation of labor unions.
JOB TRAINING
Journeyman card counts toward college credit
When she joined the union Cement Ma-
sons apprenticeship program in 2013,
Valerie Carroll remembers hearing
something about how you could get
college credit for your journeyman
card. So after she became a journeyman
in December 2018, she followed up on
it, and used the credit to help complete
an associate’s degree in applied science
from Mt. Hood Community College
(MHCC). Now 42, she’s working to-
ward a bachelor’s degree in construc-
tion management from Brigham Young
University-Idaho. Online from her
home in Aloha, she takes one or two
BYU classes per term—while working
full time as a cement mason, and raising
three kids as a single mom.
It’s not just cement masons who can
get college credit for a journeyman
card. MHCC has similar agreements in
place with local union apprenticeship
programs for Brick Masons, Carpen-
ters, Electricians, Floor Coverers, Glass
Workers, Insulators, Ironworkers,
Roofers, Painters, Plasterers, Sheet
Metal Workers, and starting this July,
Laborers.
Dawn Loomis, director of MHCC’s
Workforce, Apprenticeship & Commu-
nity Education program, thinks not
many construction union members
know about the program. Last year just
31 individuals got associate’s degree
through the MHCC program.
Given that a journeyman card itself
is a golden ticket to a rewarding career,
Loomis says it’s not surprising that
most wouldn’t feel the need to get the
degree too, but it’s available for those
who want it.
“We’re trying to get the word out,”
Loomis said. “It’s not college or ap-
prenticeship; you can do both.”
Cement Masons Apprenticeship Co-
ordinator Jeremy Kendall said his
union’s training program includes 11
classes in all, each of which entitles you
to credit at MHCC. That leaves a jour-
neyman just a few classes shy of an as-
sociate’s degree, and the Cement Ma-
sons Local 555 training center will even
pay for members to take those
classes—as long as the classes are con-
struction related and the member earns
a B grade or better.
Cement masonry isn’t just brawn and
skill. There’s also math involved, for
example in laying out steps or estimat-
ing concrete. The union-affiliated joint
apprenticeship program includes two
weeks a year of classroom instruction.
When Carroll became a journeyman,
she found that she had only three more
classes to get the associate’s: math,
writing, and science.
Cement Masons Local 555 Business
Manager Geoff Kossak says most
members don’t want or need the college
credit. After all, being a cement mason
is a rewarding career with pay of over
$35 an hour and family-friendly bene-
fits like health insurance, vacation and
retirement. But for those who want it,
college credit can also come in handy.
Carroll found that her journeyman
card gave her a boost toward an associ-
ate’s degree, and now that’s counting
toward the bachelor’s degree in con-
struction management, which she hopes
to complete by fall 2023.
“I would like to work my way into
being a superintendent,” Carroll says.
—DM
CEMENT MASON. MOM. COLLEGE STUDENT.
Valerie Carroll was able to get college credit for
what she learned in the Cement Masons Local 555
apprenticeship program. Now that’s counting to-
ward a degree. For information about how to use
your journeyman card toward an associates de-
gree, visit mhcc.edu/aasapprenticeship