SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 122, NUMBER 20
IN THIS ISSUE
NURSE UNION STAFFING AT CRISIS LEVELS A year
into COVID, exhausted nurses are leaving. | Page 2
SW WASHINGTON UNION ELECTION GUIDE Ballots
go out Oct. 15 for city councils and school boards. | Page 5
Meeting Notices p.4
Massive strike wave? p.8
PORTLAND, OREGON
OCTOBER 15, 2021
360 Sheet Metal fired Tanner Womack for sharing information about cus-
tomers with his union. He’s now at another union shop, Arctic Sheet Metal.
Local 16 ramps up campaign as
360 Sheet Metal fires unionists
NOTE TO MANAGEMENT: WE’RE NOT BLUFFING. A massive crowd of more than 700 OFNHP members and
supporters gathered for a union rally Sept. 29 outside Kaiser Permanente’s Portland offices. The message: They
want safe staffing and a fair contract, and they’re ready to strike if that’s what it takes to get it.
Kaiser courting massive strike
The votes leave no question:
Workers at Kaiser Permanente
are ready to strike. Oregon Fed-
eration of Nurses and Health
Professionals (OFNHP) an-
nounced Oct. 11 that 90% of its
3,400 Kaiser members voted
and 96% of them authorized a
strike. The same day, United
Nurses Associations of Califor-
nia/Union of Health Care Pro-
fessionals and United Steel-
workers Local 7600 announced
that they too voted to authorize
a strike, which would involve
31,000 Kaiser workers in
Southern California.
The three unions are part of a
50,000-worker, 21-union coali-
tion, the Alliance of Health Care
Unions. They say everything
they’ve fought for for decades is
at stake. Kaiser is pushing a
“two-tier” scheme to cut pay for
new hires, and offering below-
inflation raises of 1% at a time
of massive burnout among
health care workers and a grow-
ing and severe labor shortage. In
a recent OFNHP nurse survey,
60% said they were considering
leaving Kaiser.
Gladstoned-headquartered
Operating Engineers Local 701,
which represents 103 stationary
engineers at Kaiser, isn’t part of
the coalition, but its contract, ex-
tended twice, expired Sept. 15.
And about 700 members of Op-
erating Engineers Local 39 have
been on strike in San Franciscoº
since Sept. 18.
Under federal law, health
care workers must give 10-day
notice before striking.
–DM
Film/TV strike would be biggest ever
For the first time in the 128-
year history of International
Association of Theatrical and
Stage Employees (IATSE),
members have authorized a
strike at film and television
productions nationwide. Alto-
gether, 53,411 members in 36
locals voted—a turnout of
90%. And 98.7% of them voted
to authorize a strike, the union
announced Oct. 4. From set de-
signers and prop makers to
gaffers and set painters, the
workers are indispensable in
film and television production.
In contract negotiations with
the employer group Alliance of
Motion Picture and Television
Producers, IATSE is demand-
ing an end to the special lower
pay rates for productions aimed
at streaming services like Net-
flix, Amazon Prime, and Ap-
ple+. Members agreed to lower
rates when streaming was in its
infancy, but now that it’s the
dominant mode, IATSE says
it’s past time for that conces-
sion to end. IATSE also wants
an end to extreme forced over-
time that’s wrecking members’
health and family lives. The In-
stragram account @ia_stories
has posted over 1,000 exam-
ples, including routinely
missed meal breaks, 16 hour
workdays, and worse.
“I hope that the studios will
see and understand the resolve
of our members,” said IATSE
president Matthew Loeb in a
press statement.
Loeb said Oct. 8 that if a
deal isn’t reached soon, a strike
by just under 60,000 members
would begin within days, not
weeks.
–DM
Local 16’s relationship with the
newly unionized Vancouver firm
has gone from bad to worse.
By Don McIntosh
Workers at 360 Sheet Metal
Products in Vancouver voted
June 21 by 12 to 9 to join Sheet
Metal Workers Local 16. Under
federal labor law, the vote
means the company is obliged
to negotiate in good faith with
the union over a first-time col-
lective bargaining agreement.
But leaders of Local 16 say
that’s not happening, and in
September, owner Joe Martin
suspended and fired the worker
who was serving on the union
bargaining team, and two days
later, another union supporter.
Martin is a repeat offender: In
2003, the Northwest Labor Press
reported he fired five union sup-
porters at his previous (now-de-
funct) company, Reliable HVAC.
The new firings add urgency
to the union’s already escalating
public pressure campaign on the
company. Banners and a giant
inflatable fat cat are going up
weekly at sites that use 360’s
products. And on Sept. 30, Lo-
cal 16 sent a letter to general
contractors and subcontractors
that have employed 360 in the
past, letting them know that 360
is under investigation for pre-
vailing wage and occupational
safety violations.
Tanner Womack, the first
union supporter to be fired at
360, had been serving on the
union bargaining team. He says
the contract negotiations went
poorly from the start, and not
just because Martin rejected all
union proposals to improve on
the status quo. It is standard
practice for union bargaining
teams to include workers from
the bargaining unit. But after
Womack took part in bargaining,
Martin issued him an attendance
“point”—a first step that could
lead to discipline—because the
negotiation session took place
during his scheduled shift. It’s
also the norm for unions to reim-
burse workers for wages they
lose in order to take part in bar-
gaining. The employer pays for
the time, and the union reim-
burses the employer. But 360 in-
sisted that Womack’s pay come
out of his paid time off when he
took part in negotiations, mean-
ing he’d use up any vacation
he’d earned. Local 16 warned
the company that was out of line,
and could lead to legal charges.
Martin also reportedly told
workers he can’t give them any
raises while bargaining is under
way. It isn’t true, Local 16 says,
and it violates federal labor law
to tell workers that. And Martin
hasn’t been willing to meet more
than once a month to negotiate.
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