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.
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Circulation phone number:
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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
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LUNCHEON &
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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.”
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