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Muslim Fury Grows
years
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•'community service
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American
Dream Doomed
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Words spoken
by Pope Benedict
incite passions
'Ragtime' musical is a
story o f struggle, dignity
See Metro section, inside
See page B5 r V
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‘City of
Roses'
.
Volume XXXVI, N um ber 38
U.S. May Boost Forces
The U.S. military will likely main­
tain or possibly even increase the
current force levels of more than
140,000 troops in Iraq through
next spring, the top US. com ­
mander in the Middle East said
Tuesday in one of the gloomiest
assessments yet of how quickly
American forces can be brought
home. See story, page B2.
Established in 1970
www.portlandobserver.com
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Wednesday • September 20. 2006
Custodians’ Uphill Battle
Workers fight
for contract
by S arah B ixn nt
T he P ortland O bserver
It’s been four years since Portland
Public Schools laid off 3(H) custodians in
an ill-fated, m oney-saving m aneuver.
Now the district is recalling em ployees,
following the maintenance w orkers' le­
gal victory in the Oregon Supreme Court.
The custodians are eligible for recall
and 130 have pledged to return over the
Spinach Contaminated
Federal health officials continued
Tuesday to probe the source o f E.
coli contamination of Spinach and
warn consumers not to resume
eating fresh spinach products.
The food-poisoning episode is
the 20th since 1995 linked to spin­
ach or lettuce.
Army Coup in Thailand
T h ailan d ’s arm y com m ander
staged a coup Tuesday night and
ousted Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra while he was in New
York, circling his offices with
tanks, declaring martial law and
revoking the constitution.
Willie Busted for Pot
Singer W illie J
N elso n
and
fo u r
o th e rs
w ere issu ed
m isd em ean o r
c ita tio n s for
possession of
illegal mushrooms and marijuana |
after a traffic stop Monday morn­
ing on a Louisiana highway. A
trooped smelled the strong odor j
of marijuana and found the illegal
substances after an inspection of |
the country music star’s tour bus.
Prisons Breed Radicals
U.S. prisons are becoming major
breeding grounds for Islamic ter­
rorists, but state and local au­
thorities are too cash-strapped to
prevent or track recruiting, a new
report by George W ashington
University and the University of
Virginia concludes. It found that
Islamist extremists target their
vulnerable prison-mates with dis­
torted versions of the Quran and
other Muslim readings that urge
radicalization and violence.
Data Wanted in Porn Fight
A tto rn ey G en eral A lb erto
Gonzales said Tuesday that Con­
gress should require Internet ser­
vice providers to preserve cus­
tomer records, asserting that pros­
ecutors need them to fight child
pornography.
Beach Cleanup Success
Over three thousand Oregonians
celebrated the 22nd annual Great
Oregon Fall Beach Cleanup on
Saturday. They worked side by
side to clean up the beach along
the entire Oregon coast, from the
W ashington to the California
borders, collecting 4 2 ,183 pounds
of debris.
us.”
photo bv
S ean O ’C onner /T he P ori land O bserver
Portland School Custodian Birdie Kirk at Cleveland High School, the school she hopes to return to Mon­
day after being illegally outsourced by contract employees. Kirk said it was a shame to see the school in
its present shape.
Hard Fought Win
Stopped in Tracks
Women who won
discrimination
suit must wait
T w o African A merican city em ­
ployees who won a civil law suit
claim ing discrimination were stopped
from collecting a $50,000jury award
last week when the City Council
voted to appeal their case to a higher
court.
The successful litigants, Lisa W ash­
ington and Roxie G ranville were turned
back after aski ig the council to ignore the
city atto rn ey 's advice to appeal their
lawsuit datir g back to 1997.
In June, .. ¡ury awarded the plaintiffs
$50,000 each in dam ages plus possible
back pay for discrim ination the women
faced when they worked at the city 's
Bureau o f Development Services. They
claim ed supervisors singled them out
with bogus policies and unfair enforce­
ment o f employee rules.
ör 0
The layoffs never truly disbanded SEIU
Local 140, the union group representing
custodians in the past. Many maintained
continued
on pane AS
The city claim ed there was no dis­ him to support the appeal. Sam A dam s
crimination.
and Dan Saltzm an jo in ed in the unani­
C ity A ttorney Jen n ifer Johnston o b ­ m ous decision. C om m issio n er Erik
je c ts to the ju d g m en t in the civil case Sten d id n 't vote, citin g a co n flict
because o f court errors she said could b e c a u se h e 's kno w n W a sh in g to n
set bad legal precedent and affect o th er since childhood.
cases against the city. She objected to
In their lawsuit, the women claimed
the ju d g e allow ing evidence from the
supervisors unfairly rated their jo b per­
e m p lo y e e s ’ w o rk e rs c o m p e n s a tio n
form ance, accusing them o f being seen
claim s that had already been litigated together, walking down the street when
and won by the city. Johnston also said
they should have been working. The
the ju ry got incorrect ju ry instructions supervisors said they were concerned
from the ju d g e.
they might be going into the field to­
M ayor Tom P otter acknow ledged it gether without a m anager's perm is­
was a tough decision to appeal, e sp e ­ sion and were seen together too often,
cially in light o f the case com ing before a violation o f a policy.
an all-w hite and m ale C ity C ouncil.
W ashington said she was insulted
Randy L eonard, w ho runs the services by the council's appeal decision, whom
bureau, said he w anted to let the ver­ she felt had been "bam boozled by the
dict stand, but city attorneys persuaded
city attorney's office” .
Send in the
Two-Wheeled
Clowns
l i t * ft
w
next two weeks, starting M onday, Sept.
25 and continuing through Oct. 2.
School district officials and the return­
ing w orkers agree that Public Employee
Retirement System (PERS) benefits and
wage rates will remain the same, plus
cost of living over the past four years.
However, problem s abound with both
parties locked in a dispute over back pay
and health benefits.
The custodians demand the same ben­
efits as when they left in 2002. The
district says no, having renegotiated with
another group o f district em ployees, af­
ter the custodians were contracted out.
Returning custodians feel cheated by
the district intentions to lower its contri­
bution rates for health benefits, which
were covered in full in 2002. The new
rates were bargained in a contract with
Nutrition Services W orkers, fellow school
em ployees and members o f Service Em ­
ployees International Union, SEIU Local
503.
Depending on the size o f their family,
custodians would pay $25 to $150 each
month for health care.
“O ur position is we return under the
same conditions we left with in 2002,”
said Steve Armony, former head custo­
dian at Franklin High School who is now
chair of the custodian's steering com m it­
tee, a group o f 10 to 12 custodians
leading the return process and bargaining
for back pay.
"W e’ve m aintained that we had no part
o f the district's contract with Nutrition
Services and no vote in the contract,” he
said. "The terms are not acceptable to
M3
In what has become a
trademark o f the Alberta
Street Fair and the art
district's numerous other
festivals, clowns on bikes
pedal up and down the
Northeast Portland thor­
oughfare Saturday, past
shoppers, diners and
curious onlookers.
photo by M ark
W ashington /
T i l l I’t IRELAND ( >RSERV ER