March 12, 2014
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TheWeek Review
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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