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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 2019)
A2 THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019 IN BRIEF Property tax statements on the way FAST CROSSING Clatsop County taxpayers will receive property tax statements for the 2019-20 tax year this week. The statements account for $90.9 million. The money will pay for county government services, city services, education, the Port of Astoria and rural fi re and other special districts. The amount is an 8% increase from last year due to several factors, including the 3% increase in assessed value on most properties, value due to new construc- tion activity and new or increased taxing district lev- ies and bonds. — The Astorian DEATHS Oct. 10, 2019 THOMAS, William, 86, of Warrenton, died in Warrenton. Hughes-Ran- som Mortuary and Cre- mation is in charge of the arrangements. Oct. 7, 2019 CUDIAMAT, Harry, 78, of Seaside, died in Portland. Hughes-Ran- som Mortuary and Cre- mation is in charge of the arrangements. NEU, Brandon, 46, of Seaside, died in Sea- side. Hughes-Ransom Mortuary and Crema- tion is in charge of the arrangements. BIRTHS Oct. 4, 2019 BROCKEY, Tracie and Brent, of Knappa, a girl, Kersey Jo Brockey, born at Columbia Memo- rial Hospital in Astoria. Grandparents are Bob and Marilyn Brockey and John and Julie Nygaard, all of Knappa. LORENZANA, Bri- anna, and HUDSON, Camren, of Warrenton, a boy, Julian Scott Hudson, born at Columbia Memo- rial Hospital. Grandpar- ents are Cynthia Williams, of Napa, California, and Dayna Hughes, of Repub- lic, Washington. MEMORIALS Saturday, Oct. 19 KOLJONEN, Mar- garet Elaine (Shannon) — Celebration of life at 2 p.m., followed by a pot- luck, United Steelwork- ers Union Hall, 91237 Old Mill Town Road in Westport. LOFGREN, Joanna — Graveside service at 11 a.m., Ocean View Cemetery in Warrenton. OWENS, Gerry — Celebration of life at 1:30 p.m., Multnomah Athletic Club, 1849 SW Salmon St. in Portland. WIRFS, Ralph — Celebration of life and memorial at 11a.m., Lib- erty Theatre, McTavish Room, 1203 Commer- cial St. ON THE RECORD DUII • Victoria Frances Crist, 25, of Seaside, was arrested Sunday on U.S. Highway 101 and Sun- set Beach Lane for driv- ing under the infl uence of intoxicants. Police said Crist crashed off the high- way. Her blood alcohol content was 0.20%. • Travis Randall Moore, 43, of Warrenton, was arrested Saturday at Fort Stevens State Park near the Peter Iredale for DUII. • Breda Joyce Davis Maloney, 25, was arrested Saturday on U.S. Highway 26 for reckless driving and DUII. Her blood alcohol content was 0.16%. • James Monje Lara, 29, of Troutdale, was arrested Friday for reck- less driving and DUII. Police said he fell asleep while driving eastbound on U.S. Highway 26 when he crossed the lanes of the highway and drove into the grassy knoll of Sunset Rest Area. Domestic menacing • Kelsey Dawn Nguyen, 22, of Portland, was arrested Saturday at the Safeway parking lot for domestic menacing and domestic harassment. Police said she threw a glass jar at her boyfriend, lacerating him above an eye. Weapon possession • Robert Allen Brown, 39, of Astoria, was arrested Friday after a traf- fi c stop on Koppisch Road and Heather Lane in Asto- ria for three counts of an ex-convict in possession of a weapon. PUBLIC MEETINGS TUESDAY Astoria Historic Land- marks Commission, 5:15 p.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St. Lewis & Clark Fire De- partment Board, 6 p.m., main fi re station, 34571 U.S. Highway 101 Business. Seaside School District Board of Directors, 7 p.m., 1801 S. Franklin. Seaside Planning Commis- sion, 7 p.m., work session, City Hall, 989 Broadway. Shoreline Sanitary District Board, 7 p.m., Gearhart Hertig Station, 33496 West Lake Lane, Warrenton. WEDNESDAY Clatsop Soil and Water Conservation District Board, 10 a.m., OSU Seafood Lab Center, Con- ference Room 113, 2001 Marine Drive, Astoria. Seaside Tourism Advisory Committee, 3 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway. THURSDAY Seaside Transportation Advisory Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broad- way. Established July 1, 1873 Circulation phone number: 503-325-3211 Periodicals postage paid at Astoria, OR (USPS 035-000) Published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday by EO Media Group, 949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503-325-3211, 800-781-3211 or Fax 503-325-6573. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Astorian, PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103-0210 DailyAstorian.com ADVERTISING OWNERSHIP All advertising copy and illustrations prepared by The Astorian become the property of The Astorian and may not be reproduced for any use without explicit prior approval. COPYRIGHT © Entire contents © Copyright, 2019 by The Astorian. MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS MEMBER CERTIFIED AUDIT OF CIRCULATIONS, INC. Printed on recycled paper Subscription rates Eff ective May 1, 2019 MAIL (IN COUNTY) EZpay (per month) ...............................................................................................................$11.25 13 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$37.00 26 weeks in advance ...........................................................................................................$71.00 52 weeks in advance ........................................................................................................ $135.00 Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian First-place runner, Nick Slenning, reaches the peak of the Astoria Bridge on Sunday morning during the Great Columbia Crossing 10K. Grocery workers ratify contract with Fred Meyer and Safeway By MALLORY GRUBEN The Daily News A “sizable majority” of members in a regional gro- cery workers union ratifi ed a contract with Fred Meyer and other stores late Friday night, ending a 16-month period of sometimes tense negotiations, according to union offi cials. The three-year contract guarantees employees a min- imum 20-hour work week, provides wage increases for all workers and “aims toward” closing a perceived gender pay gap, said United Food and Commercial Work- ers Local 555 spokeswoman Kelley McAllister. The union, which rep- resents about 18,000 gro- cery workers in Oregon and s outhwest Washington state, also didn’t lose any ground in negotiations, she said. “The whole contract is pretty historic,” McAllister said. In a prepared state- ment Saturday, Fred Meyer spokesman Jeffery Temple said the company is “pleased to have reached an agree- ment that secures increased wages, continued premium health care coverage and pension stability. We thank our hardworking associates for continuing to serve our customers and communities every day.” The union declined to share how many union mem- bers voted “yes” to ratify the contract. UFCW 555 started nego- tiating a new contract with Fred Meyer , Safeway, Alb- ertsons and QFC more than a year ago, but negotiations stalled due to a wage dispute. According to union offi cials, the company was offering “nickels and dimes” com- pared to requests by union members. The union was par- ticularly upset with Fred Meyer, which union offi cials accused of unfair labor prac- tices during the negotiations. The standstill led union members to approve a strike authorization vote in August, and later ask customers to boycott Fred Meyer stores. The union and the com- panies reached a tentative agreement about a week after the boycott. “I have no way of know- ing why (the companies) fi nally moved. I would credit two elements, and one is the boycott,” McAllister said. “The boycott had a nearly instantaneous impact. Our ‘OUR LONG-TERM FIGHT IS TO MAKE GROCERY WORK A SOLIDLY MIDDLE CLASS JOB AGAIN. ... (WITH THIS CONTRACT) WE TOOK A BIG STEP IN THAT DIRECTION.’ Kelley McAllister | United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 spokeswoman customers were ready and they stood with us.” McAllister said a federal mediator, who met with the groups the week before the settlement, may have also played a role in the compa- ny’s change of heart. Temple said his compa- ny’s “top priority is to do what is best — provide our customers with the freshest products and the friendliest associates.” The contract provides “schedule A” employees, such as grocery checkers and courtesy clerks, with a 55-cent raise each year of FINNISH BROTHERHOOD LODGE AUXILIARY ALL YOU CAN EAT LAKSLODA LUNCHEON & BAKE SALE Thurs. Oct 17, 2019 • 11:30 am - 1:30 pm $15 per person Suomi Hall 244 W. Marine Dr. Astoria, Oregon Out of County Rates available at 800-781-3214 DIGITAL EZpay (per month) .................................................................................................................$8.00 the contract and “schedule B” employees, such as bak- ery and deli workers, with a 90-cent raise each year of the contract. That’s a 25-cent and 50-cent boost over pre- vious contract offers for schedule A and schedule B workers . The average hourly wage for schedule A work- ers was $17.22 and the aver- age hourly wage for sched- ule B workers was $13.69 before the new contract, according to the UFCW 555 website. It was unclear how those average hourly wages would change under the new contract. Central Checkout employees, or CCK workers, will receive 60-cent raises Public cordially invited! each year of the contract, McAllister said. The contract also raises “non foods” wages up to schedule B rates, McAllister said. Some of those employ- ees previously made less than schedule B workers, though amount of the differ- ence varied from city to city. “In Portland, the bump was a dime, but in Longview the bump was $1,” she said. The raises are the highest the union has ever received, McAllister said. A portion of the raises will be supported fi nancially by health care reserve money the union is giving up to the companies, she said. “On one hand, we would love for this to be higher,” McAllister said. “But on the other hand, this is two times more than we’ve ever gotten before on schedule A and 3 1/2 higher than we’ve ever gotten on schedule B.” The contract also less- ened the gender pay gap at the companies, McAllister said. That gap was created by the different pay scales between schedule A, which employs more men, and schedule B, which employs more women. Although the contract doesn’t completely close the $3.53 difference union offi cials found between the schedules, it is a step in the right direction, McAllister said. “This will raise sched- ule B up $1.05, so it will cut that gap by almost a third,” McAllister said. If that rate of raise con- tinues, the union could close the gap in just nine years, she said. Previous estimates, based on past raises, show it would take 35 years to close the gap. New language in the con- tract also makes it easier for workers to transfer from schedule B jobs to schedule A jobs, McAllister said. “In the past, it was just at the whim of the man- ager. What was happen- ing was people, more often than not women, were ask- ing to move over to schedule A, and the company would deny the request,” McAllis- ter said. And then the com- pany would sometimes pro- ceed to hire a new employee to fi ll the schedule A vacancy. “What will happen now, I think, is that we will see schedule B is made more and more of new folks, and peo- ple of experience will move over to schedule A,” McAl- lister said. Union offi cials also high- lighted the 20-hour work week guarantee, which will make all workers eligible to receive benefi ts, McAllister said. The 20-hour work week guarantee may also “snow- ball for people” because it incentivizes employers to give their workers more hours instead of hiring new people, McAllister said. The contract carries a uni- versal three-year term in all contracts and all areas within UFCW 555’s jurisdiction, according to the union. The contract begins the day after any current contract expires. For contracts that expired before the agreement was reached, the new contract will be retroactively applied back to the expiration date. “We feel like the union negotiations team’s collec- tive position was that all of their needs were met,” McAllister said. “Our long- term fi ght is to make grocery work a solidly middle class job again. ... (With this con- tract) we took a big step in that direction.” WANTED Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
