Union-led campaign may block Oregon Steel from light-rail project

By DON McINTOSH, Staff Reporter

The month of October brought two significant developments in the campaign against Oregon Steel Mills by locked-out members of United Steelworkers of America (USWA).

On Oct. 19, the union, joined by two environmental groups, announced that it intends to sue the company for violations of the Clean Air Act at the company's Portland plant. Then Oct. 25, in a surprise victory for the union, the Tri-Met Board of Directors approved unanimously a resolution on "responsible contracting" that could prevent the company from providing steel rail on a planned Interstate light rail line expansion.

Under an Oregon law passed in 1999, public agencies like Tri-Met are supposed to consider a company's "record of integrity" in awarding contracts, but integrity is not defined in the law. The Tri-Met resolution fleshes out the definition and requires bidders to disclose legal actions taken against them by government agencies.

Rocky Mountain Steel Mills, a Pueblo, Colo., subsidiary of Oregon Steel Mills, was fined almost half-a-million dollars by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in August for more than 1,000 violations of workplace safety and health standards; in January it was sued by the state of Colorado for violations of federal air quality standards; and in May it was ordered by an administrative law judge to reinstate and pay back pay to approximately 1,000 locked out workers for violations of federal labor law.

"We believe the record of non-compliance with state and federal regulations makes Oregon Steel/Rocky Mountain Steel an unsuitable business partner for Tri-Met," said Paul Bogart, a Steelworkers Union staffperson who has been working on the Oregon Steel Campaign.

About 65 supporters of the union packed into the Tri-Met board meeting, which took place at Gresham City Hall. For over an hour board members heard the testimony of 20 individuals, including several locked-out workers, representatives from other unions and community groups, and two members of a Workers Rights Board panel that held a hearing on Oregon Steel.

Robert Krueger, a Catholic priest, delivered a petition signed by 30 local religious leaders in support of the Steelworkers, and Frank Fromherz of the Catholic Archdiocese of Portland read a letter from Archbishop John Vlazny urging Tri-Met not to buy from Oregon Steel because the company has not respected workers' rights. After all the union supporters testified, Rocky Mountain Steel general manager Rob Simon responded that the responsible contractor proposal was vague, prompting board members to suggest revisions on the spot that would tighten it up.

Tri-Met Board Chair George Passadore stood aside during the vote and discussion of the responsible contracting proposal because he is a vice president of Wells Fargo bank, which is a major lender to Oregon Steel Mills. Wells Fargo has been a union target since shortly after the Pueblo strike/lockout began Oct. 3, 1997.

At the Tri-Met hearing, union supporters portrayed the company as lawless, and not just at its Pueblo subsidiary. Steelworkers and local environmentalists in Portland have been studying the record of the company's non-union Portland plant, located at 14400 N. Rivergate Blvd.

To draw attention to violations of the Clean Air Act at the Portland mill, the USWA announced that it plans to file a lawsuit in federal court in late December.

Joined by the Environmental Justice Action Group and the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment, the union charges that the Portland plant has repeatedly exceeded limits on particulate matter and carbon monoxide in its exhaust, and that it is not properly monitoring lead emissions. The suit bases its charges on the company's own reports to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.

"We are filing suit against Oregon Steel because they have chosen to pollute the air of this community rather than invest in the new equipment and proper procedures that would cut their emissions and allow them to meet all applicable Clean Air standards," said Jim Jontz, interim coordinator of the union-supported Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment.

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), responsible for enforcing the Clean Air Act, is reviewing the suit and meeting with the state attorney general's office to formulate a response.

Greg Grunow, the DEQ natural resource specialist who works most closely with Oregon Steel, said the company has exceeded the allowable density of its emissions as many as 40 times since 1995. In March, the DEQ sent a "notice of noncompliance" to the company, but Grunow said the violations were not serious enough to warrant further enforcement action.

Home | About