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Oregon Steel settles environmental suit brought by labor

Oregon Steel Mills agreed Aug. 15 to settle an environmental lawsuit that was filed by United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and the Portland-based Environmental Justice Action Group in April 2001.

The plaintiffs filed the suit over violations of the federal Clean Air Act at Oregon Steel’s North Portland steel mill.

The union took part in the suit as part of its corporate campaign against the company stemming from a labor dispute at Oregon Steel’s Pueblo, Colorado, subsidiary — Rocky Mountain Steel Mills. About 1,100 workers struck the Pueblo facility Oct. 3, 1997 and were rejected three months later when they offered to return to work.

In 2000, the company began recalling locked-out workers. About 400 workers have returned and are working under the terms of a management-imposed contract.

In May 2000, a federal judge upheld the union’s unfair labor practice charges against the company, but the company appealed, and ever since then the case has awaited a hearing before the five-member National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C. Union leaders have said that the company faces as much as $100 million potential liability if the board upholds the judge’s ruling. The liability is based on back pay for the strikers if the board agrees their strike was motivated by company violations of labor law.

In settling the environmental lawsuit, the company agreed to pay $55,000 to fund a monitoring study of air pollution in North Portland; hire an independent monitor to do spot checks at the mill for a period of three years; and pay $50,000 of the plaintiffs approximately $100,000 in legal costs.

A federal judge had dismissed the majority of plaintiffs’ claims on legal and factual grounds. The company said in a press statement that it believes the case was without merit and that it agreed to settle to avoid incurring additional legal costs.

The mill that was the subject of the suit — a scrap metal melting operation in North Portland — has been shut since May for financial reasons.

At Pueblo, the sides still have not reached agreement on a contract to end the labor dispute, though they have been meeting sporadically for a year and a half.

Oregon Steel President/CEO Joe Corvin resigned July 31 and was replaced by Jim Declusin, former CEO of California Steel Industries and a member of the Oregon Steel board of directors since 2000.

Union spokesperson Steve Hopcraft said Steelworker negotiators noticed a much-improved atmosphere at the bargaining table after Declusin took charge. Core economic issues have not yet been dealt with.

OPB workers grouchy after management demands contract takeaways

Oscar the Grouch, normally in a bad mood, was particularly agitated Aug. 20. The Sesame Street character, who lives in a garbage can, attended an informational picket line outside Oregon Public Broadcasting’s Southwest Macadam headquarters in Portland because OPB management is demanding sizeable takeaways from 40 TV and radio employees represented by Service Employees International Union Local 503, Oregon Public Employees Union.

Local 503 Executive Director Leslie Frane said management is demanding that union members pay the same monthly premiums that non-union workers pay — hundreds of dollars a month for family health care coverage. That’s unacceptable, Frane said, because the union workers voted to sacrifice wage increases many times over the years to keep their fully-paid family health benefits.

At least 23 state senators and representatives signed a letter of support for the union workers. Management has refused to meet with the union, and is paying a lawyer $300 an hour to do its negotiating.

The network gets financial support from the State of Oregon, from businesses and foundations, and from individual contributors. Frane said the amount the two sides differ at the bargaining table is no more than OPB could raise in one eight-hour phone-a-thon.

Tentative deal reached at Oregon University System

SALEM — Service Employees Local 503, Oregon Public Employees Union, has reached a tentative agreement on a new contract for 3,700 classified employees of the Oregon University System. The sides have been bargaining since December and impasse was declared Aug. 8.

Union members held rallies throughout the seven state college and university system to express concern about the changes OUS wanted to impose on working conditions.

The contract contains step freezes and no cost-of-living increases, but it does protect health insurance and employee-rights issues. The tentative agreement is subject to a vote by members.Votes will be counted by Sept. 15.

“I’m glad that OUS was willing to back off from their efforts to take away a lot of our basic rights at work,” said Jim Brobisky, bargaining team chair and worker at Southern Oregon University bookstore.

“Our members were prepared to stand up for our rights and our dignity. It’s good to know students won’t be facing a strike when classes begin in September.”

Workers in the Oregon University System are state workers, but they have bargained separately from other state employees since 1995.

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