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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (July 16, 2021)
SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS VOLUME 122, NUMBER 14 IN THIS ISSUE UNION DEMOCRACY Oregon AFSCME and Roofers Local 49 held recent leadership elections. | Page 6 A UNION GUIDE TO WASHINGTON’S PRIMARY:The Aug. 3 election is for school board and city races. | Page 8 Meeting Notices p.4 In Memoriam: Tim Joy p.6 PORTLAND, OREGON WORKER SAFETY JULY 16, 2021 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING Oregon OSHA issues emergency heat rule Painters turn down $2.94 in By Don McIntosh It took a frightening three-day heat wave and at least one on- the-job death to light a fire under the agency, but on July 8, the Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said employers must now take steps to protect workers during extremely hot weather. Washing- ton’s Department of Labor and Industries already had such a rule, but increased its require- ments as of July 13. The rules say when the weather gets hot, em- ployers must provide water and shade breaks to workers. Oregon OSHA has dragged its feet on the issue for years. In October 2016, Kate Suisman of the Northwest Workers Justice Project, along with union lead- ers like Scott Oldham of Painters Local 10, asked the worker safety agency to protect workers from heat. Suisman says the agency wasn’t con- vinced a rule was needed, but she and others kept pushing, and in early 2020 Oregon OSHA said it would develop a rule… by 2025. JUSTICE FOR SEBASTIAN FRANCISCO PEREZ A vigil at the United Farm Work- ers office in Hermis- ton was one of three held around Oregon July 3 to call for heat protections after a St. Paul nurs- ery worker died June 26 of heat ex- posure. That timetable changed after Republican state lawmakers walked out in March 2020 to kill a climate jobs bill that Democ- rats had declared a priority. In re- sponse, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced climate-re- lated steps she could take under her own authority, including di- recting Oregon OSHA to de- velop a rule by March 2021 to protect workers exposed to heat and wildfire smoke. Then the pandemic hit. Rulemaking Turn to Page 8 YOUR RIGHTS UNDER OREGON’S NEW RULE When the heat index (temp+humidity) is over 80º, your employer must: Provide access to shade during breaks Provide cool drinking water at no cost, enough for you to drink a quart (32 oz.) per hour When the heat index is above 90º, your employer must also: Provide a cool-down rest period in the shade of 10 minutes for every two hours of work Ensure that you and your co-workers are observed for alertness and signs of heat illness, and monitored to determine whether medical attention is necessary SECURE RETIREMENT U.S. government launches pension rescue Plasterers Local 82 and OPEIU Local 11 could undo pension benefit cuts almost immediately. By Don McIntosh The U.S. Labor Department on July 9 unveiled its rules for a new $94 billion program to rescue failing union pension plans. The program was one small part of the American Rescue Plan Act which passed in March, and it’s expected to help more than 3 million union members and their spouses. “Every working person de- serves to retire with dignity and receive all the benefits they earned during their career,” said U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh in a press statement as the rules were announced. “Unions … have been fighting for years for what these workers have earned.” The rescue is Congress’ biggest-yet response to a crisis afflicting about one in seven multi-employer pension plans. Multi-employer plans are collec- tively bargained plans that in- clude at least two employers and are jointly overseen by employer and union trustees. They’re most common in industries like con- struction, trucking and janitorial that have lots of small union em- ployers. In all, there are about 10.9 million union workers and retirees enrolled in about 1,400 multi-employer pension plans. The plans are heavily regulated, and most of the time they’re able to provide workers a secure re- tirement at a fairly affordable rate for employers. But in the last two decades, the plans’ investments have lost value in financial crashes. Most of the 1,400 plans have been able to recover, but 100 to 200 plans, especially in in- dustries where the union work- force is aging and declining in number, have been unable to make up the losses. All told, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) estimates over 200 pension plans will be eligible for the assistance, including over 100 plans that would otherwise have become insolvent during the next 15 years. PBGC is the government agency that insures pension plans. Without the rescue, PBGC itself was headed for insolvency Turn to Page 2 raises, return to bargaining A day later, a competing con- tractor group offered $4.30 an hour over the same time frame. By Don McIntosh In a lopsided 82-30 vote, members of Painters Local 10 rejected an employer offer to raise their wages $2.94 an hour over the next year. Voting took place via drive-through ballot- ing July 6 in union parking lots in Portland, Salem, Eugene and Prineville. “It would have been the largest three-year raise we would have received in decades,” explained Painters District Council 5 representa- tive Scott Oldham. “However, I think the sentiment from the members was that they’re try- ing to catch up to the other trades. And this was not a big enough movement.” Oldham says Local 10 members are determined to make big strides after having lost ground to inflation for decades, during which time union painters’ pay rates fell behind those of all other local construction trades union members. Wages under the current contract with Signatory Painting Contractors Organi- zation (SPCO) are $26.56 an hour for commercial and resi- dential painting and $28.36 for industrial painting. SPCO of- fered a $2.94 wage increase (plus 56 cents more for bene- fits) after an escalating series of unfair labor practice strikes that began May 21; before the strikes it was offering just $0.25 an hour. “The threat of the strike had everything to do with the sud- den increase,” Oldham said. A day after members re- jected SPCO’s offer, a compet- ing contractor organization of- fered more generous raises: a $6.75 an hour increase in total compensation within the next 24 months. Under the tentative agreement with Associated “They felt like they didn’t want to continue to fall behind,” said Painters Local 10 rep Scott Oldham. Wall and Ceiling Contractors (AWCC), journeyman wages that are currently $27 an hour would rise $2 an hour retroac- tive to July 1, 2021, plus 10 cents for health insurance and 20 cents for pension. The total package would increase again $2.30 an hour July 1, 2022, and $2.15 an hour July 1, 2023, to be divided among wages and benefits as deter- mined by membership vote. AWCC proposes an even big- ger 2023 increase if the union market share and work picture improve: Members would get an additional $1 an hour if commercial paint hours in- crease 5%, and $1.50 if hours increase more than 10%. “That would be an incentive for us as a union to seriously try to grow market share,” Oldham said. Local 10 members were set to vote on the AWCC proposal July 14 (after this issue went to press), with the union bargain- ing team strongly recommend- ing a “yes” vote. Local 10’s bargaining team met July 8 and 13 with SPCO to discuss further improve- ments, and the two sides were set to meet again July 15, after this issue went to press. Old- ham predicted SPCO was likely to match AWCC’s offer.
