Portland group seeks Katz' support in steel dispute

A new organization of labor and religious groups - called the Portland Coalition of Conscience - is appealing to Portland Mayor Vera Katz to support locked-out Steelworkers at Rocky Mountain Steel by boycotting Wells Fargo Bank.

Rocky Mountain Steel is owned by Portland-based Oregon Steel Mills, which has received extended lines of credit from Wells Fargo and a consortium of other banks to help offset the costs of the strike, the Steelworkers said.

Wells Fargo is on the national AFL-CIO's Do Not Patronize List.

The coalition, which is comprised of 25 local unions, labor councils and the Oregon AFL-CIO, a half-dozen area churches, and Jobs With Justice, is asking Katz and the City of Portland to "lend its voice to this struggle" by not renewing its banking contract with Wells Fargo Bank when it expires in July. The coalition is also asking the mayor to "appeal to Wells Fargo to not renew its loan to Oregon Steel Mills upon its expiration" this month.

"It is both our right and our responsibility as leaders and citizens in this community to hold corporations accountable when their actions effect the lives of families no matter where they live," the coalition said in a letter to Katz, reminding her that the city also extends a $10 million tax break to Oregon Steel Mills.

"Portland must be concerned with how its business partners affect working families," the letter to Katz said. " The impending expiration of the city's banking contract affords you the opportunity to articulate that concern in a meaningful way."