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SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900 NORTHWEST INSIDE Union Meetings 4 NOLC Elections 6 LABOR Buy Union 6 Classified Ads 7 VOLUME 116, NUMBER 23 PRESPOS RTLAND, OREGON DECEMBER 4, 2015 Belts tighten as ATI lockout of union Steelworkers enters fourth month The lockout at specialty metals maker Al - legheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) is now in its fourth month, with no end in sight. About 2,200 members of United Steelworkers (USW) are out of work in the labor dispute, which affects 12 facilities in six states, includ - ing about 180 members of USW Local 7150 at ATI’s titanium plant in Albany, Oregon. ATI locked out its union employees Aug. 15 after USW didn’t hold a member vote on the company’s contract proposal by the com - Congressman Kurt Schrader pany’s deadline. ATI’s proposal would cut health benefits significantly; make it easier to turns hostile to union rights outsource union members’ work; give one- The Oregon Democrat backs bills voted with state senate Republi - time $1,500 payments instead of regular to diminish workers’ right to hourly wage increases; and for new hires, end cans to kill a paid family leave Union steelworkers from multiple mills rallied unionize or take collective action bill that would have given work - retiree health and life insurance benefits and Sept. 1 outside ATI’s Pittsburgh headquarters. replace the pension with a 401(k). ers $250 a week when they ATI is operating its plants at a reduced level By Don McIntosh leave work to care for a new - Associate editor born child. using replacement workers provided by Strom providing the equivalent of $200 per member But at least on labor’s most Engineering, a company that specializes in per week to help members who are in financial Oregon’s most conservative De - basic litmus test issue — staffing during strikes and lockouts. Ron hardship, distributed on the basis of need. mocrat, U.S. Congressman Kurt whether workers have the right Rodgers, USW staff representative for Local Company health benefits expired at the end of Schrader, is taking increasingly to unionize and take collective 7150, said every weekday six shuttle vans November, but workers can enroll in a less- antagonistic stances toward the action — Schrader said the right cross the Albany union picket line, transport - generous union health plan. union movement. things. In 2008, running for ing about 60 replacement workers, who are “The company’s intent is to hold us out un - Schrader has had the peren - Congress for the first time, he housed by the company in a Salem hotel and til our unemployment benefits expire,” nial endorsement of the AFL- told the Oregon AFL-CIO he paid wages above what union members were Rodgers said. CIO — against less labor- supported the Employee Free making. The unemployment benefits are currently friendly Republican opponents Choice Act, a top priority bill for Meanwhile, the company’s regular employ - scheduled to last six months, and would end — but he’s never been truly labor that would have cracked ees struggle to get by on $538 a week in un - in mid-February. But locked-out workers may tight with organized labor. He down on employer labor law vi - employment benefits. That’s Oregon’s maxi - get help from the Oregon Legislature. When was the Oregon AFL-CIO’s olations and made it easier for mum benefit, but it’s nearly $400 a week less it holds its one-month short session in Febru - lowest-rated Oregon House De - workers to unionize and get a than they were taking home when they were ary, State Rep. Dan Rayfield (D-Corvallis) on the job. A union strike and defense fund is Turn to Page 7 mocrat in 1997, and the lowest- first contract. rated Oregon Senate Democrat Schrader won that race for in 2007. He was the only Ore - Congress, defeating Republican gon House Democrat to vote for Mike Erickson to succeed De - At First Unitarian, a first union contract a 1999 bill that would have cre - mocrat Darlene Hooley. In the ated a sub-minimum wage for Turn to Page 2 Fifteen support workers at First the best interest of the church. cause” workplace, where for - restaurant workers. In 2007, he Unitarian Church of Portland But an outcry by the famously merly it was an “at will” work - have ratified their first-ever social-activist congregation place. In a just cause workplace, union contract. That’s a rarity, changed his mind, and the managers can’t discipline or fire Portland bans the box because U.S. labor law doesn’t church community rallied to workers without offering a jus - protect church workers’ right to raise funds to increase wages. tification, and workers have On Nov. 25 — the day before or ask about an aapfptleircant’s crim - unionize. But it doesn’t say they The new agreement, which some right to defend them - Thanksgiving — Portland City inal record until they make can’t unionize either, and in Sinkford announced Nov. 19, selves. Council voted 5-0 to approve a a conditional job offer. Employ - February, the downtown Port - raises wages to $15 an hour, ex - The two-year contract will “ban the box” ordinance that ers can rescind the conditional land church agreed to accept its cept for a six-month probation - run through June 30, 2017. It goes much farther than a state offer if they conduct a back - workers’ decision to join Com - ary period for new employees. covers administrative staff and law passed earlier this year. ground check and determine in munications Workers of Amer - That’s a big raise for most of the sextons (church workers who The Oregon law bars em - good faith that a particular of - ica Local 7901. workers, who were earning $12 clean and maintain building and ployers from asking via a box fense is job-related — but That wasn’t church leaders’ or even $10 an hour. And the grounds and operate audiovisual on initial employment applica - they’re also supposed to con - first reaction. Initially, senior raise is retroactive to July 1. systems), but not child care tions whether applicants have sider the nature and gravity of pastor Bill Sinkford rejected the The contract also maintains staff. But all employees, not just ever been arrested or convicted the offense, and the amount of idea, and even published a blog the church’s existing vacation the union-represented workers, of a crime. Portland’s ordinance time elapsed since it was com - post saying he didn’t believe and retirement policies, and sig - will get at least $15 an hour un - says businesses can’t conduct mitted. recognizing a union would be in nificantly, makes it a “just der the church’s new policy. criminal background screenings Turn to Page 8 PAGE 2 | December 4, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR ... Schrader turns hostile to union rights From Page 1 (PInternaRtional SEtandarSd SeriaSl Number 0894-444X) and spas — any commercial en - Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la - bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the terprise owned by an Indian first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor U.S. House of Representatives, “This isn’t the Kurt Schrader we thought Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo - tribe on Indian land. The bill, ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore - he became chair of the Blue we were getting in 2008.” which passed the House, seeks gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Dog coalition, a group of 15 — Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain to overturn a 2004 decision by Office location: “conservative Democrats” who the National Labor Relations 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon often defy the Democratic main - Board which said workers at an Mailing address: stream on tax and budget policy. Indian casino have a federally- P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Schrader was re-elected three protected right to unionize. Web address: times since 2008, with labor’s Trumka called it “a union-bust - http://nwlaborpress.org endorsement. Over the years he ington, D.C., insiders. The rela - and 2002, when George W. ing bill” and an attempt to si - Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig has appeared at labor events and tionship has only worsened Bush did the same. Schrader’s lence the voices of working peo - Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Cheri Rice picnics, while his votes earned since then. bill (HR 3932) would make it ple. Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based him an 84 percent rating from On Nov. 5, Schrader — to - mandatory for presidents to use “The AFL-CIO believes in inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. the national AFL-CIO. gether with Washington Repub - the injunction in the case of port both tribal sovereignty and SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are But the relationship soured lican Congressman Dan New - disputes — and for slowdowns, worker solidarity,” Trumka said $13.75 per year for union members, $20 a year for all others. Send a check for that amount, this year when the national house — introduced a bill not just strikes and lockouts. in a press statement. “We don’t indicating mailing address and union affilia - AFL-CIO ramped up its cam - requiring the president to seek The bill has 10 other co-spon - have to choose.” tion, to P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213. paign against Fast Track — a set an 80-day court injunction in the sors, all Republicans, including “This isn’t the Kurt Schrader For 25 or more subscriptions, group rates of $9.60 a year per person are available to trade of rules in which Congress en - event of a slowdown by long - Eastern Oregon’s Greg Walden we thought we were getting in union organizations.

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