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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 12, 2014)
March 12, 2014 ®,?, sportiani» (Dbseruer C a re e r& E D U C A n o N IN S ID E This page Sponsored by: special edition Page 3 FredMeyer What's on your list today?. C areer &Æ ducation TheWeek Review y>UR¡MG * WAR O pinion photo by D onovan M .S mith /T he P ortland O bserver Po^ n d Mayor Charlie Hales, Commissioner Dan Saltzman and other government officials met with leaders of the African American and northeast Portland community Monday to try to revive a proposal to develop a vacant parcel of land at Northeast Alberta and Martin Luther King Jr. Boule- vard for a Trader Joe’s specialty grocery store. METRO Recasting Trader Joes page 11 Mayor meets with community to revive controversial project by D onovan M . S mith T he P ortland O bserver The public outcry that led to spe- cialty grocer Trader Joe spulloutof a city-negotiated economic devel- opment project in the heart of Portland’s historic African Ameri- can community may get reversed if the mayor and other city leaders are successful in new efforts to recast the project. Mayor Charlie Hales and Com- missioner Dan Saltzman met with leaders of the African-American com m unity, neighborhood, and business representatives at City Hall in aneffort to bring the popular retail chain back, perhaps with more com- promises for all parties at the table, The issu es d isc u sse d at Monday’s gathering included past policies that lead to the displace- «ment of people of color and other disadvantaged residents from inner north and riortheast Portland, along with pledges to increase affordable housing and minority-owned busi- nesses in the Interstate Corridor Urban Renewal Area, a large sec tion of north and northeast Portland which includes the proposed Trader Joe’s site at Northeast Alberta and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. The community leaders who at tended the meeting went mostly unnamed, but included representa tives of the Portland African Ameri can Leadership Forum or PAALF, the group which brought major op position to the tax supported project when it was announced in Novem ber. The new proposal by city offi- continued on page 12 Both Sides Faulted in Labor Dispute Com pany deem ed unfair; workers used violence and racial slurs ENEEEIAINMENE pages 13-17 C alendar page 12 C lassifieds page 18 F o o d pages 19-20 A Vancouver grain terminal unfairly locked out employees for more than a year, but workers broke the law by making threats and engaging in violence during the dispute, according to a federal labor agency offi cial. United Grain Corp, imposed the lockout in February 2013 after saying a worker represented by the Interna tional Longshore and Warehouse Union sabotaged company equipment. Ronald Hooks, regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Seattle, issued his rulings in the matters last week, saying United Grain should have provided the union with a "timely, clear and complete offer" of what it needed to do to avoid a lockout. Moreover, Hooks said the company, weeks before the lockout, unfairly discharged longshoremen who re fused to operate equipment they considered unsafe. Hooks said locked-out picketers used racial slurs against black security officers, verbally threatened to harm managers and their relatives and physically attacked truck drivers and security officers. In March 2013, picketers shone spotlights into vehicles enter ing and leaving the terminal, "thereby blinding the drivers as they attempted to drive and causing perma nent eye injury to a security officer." The National Labor Relations Board investigates and remedies alleged unfair labor practices. United Grain disputes the finding and a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge will hear the matter June 30 in Portland. For now, non union workers continue to operate the export terminal, and the two sides continue to negotiate a new con tract. Separately, Hooks said the longshoremen violated labor law by engaging in threats and violence in the early months of the lockout. For example, he said, picketers threw rocks at a security officer and threat ened to rape a manager's daughter. An administration law judge will hear that matter July 21. -A ssociated Press
