News briefs


CWA loses Comcast in Beaverton

After months of campaigning from corporate management, Comcast cable installers in Beaverton voted 59 to 21 to decertify their union March 11, only three-and-a-half years after voting it in.

This after the union, Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 7901, had campaigned in support of regulatory approval of Comcast’s 2002 acquisition of AT&T. AT&T had a neutrality agreement with CWA, but Comcast has proven anything but neutral. The Beaverton unit was one of several anti-union campaigns under way.

CWA Local 7901 President Madelyn Elder said the company ran a “cookie-cutter” anti-union campaign, with daily mandatory-attendance anti-union meetings, promises of improved working conditions, and frequent “ride-alongs” in which workers installing cable would be accompanied by company managers and anti-union workers telling them what they stood to gain by dropping the union.

In the one contract it had negotiated, the union had obtained raises and other improvements for workers, but the pro-union committee of workers found it was unable to persuade co-workers to stay union.

CWA actually lost the first union election by three votes in June 2000, but an arbitrator ruled that AT&T had violated the neutrality agreement and ordered the company to recognize the union.

 

Dueling rats protest 3-Kings Co.

The Laborers Northwest Regional Organizing Coalition held a pre-dawn rally March 5 at the office of 3-Kings Environmental Inc. in Battle Ground, Washington, to handbill and protest unsafe working conditions at the asbestos abatement company. The Laborers started an organizing campaign last August with many of the asbestos-related companies in Oregon and Washington. Key issues have been workplace safety. 3-Kings does a lot of work for Safeway Inc. building new gas stations. It has been cited by Oregon-OSHA on several occasions for violating safety rules such as proper shoring. On Dec. 29, a cave-in occurred at a Safeway service station under construction in Longview, Washington. No one was injured, but the union wonders why Safeway continues using a contractor cited by OR-OSHA. 3-Kings Environmental Inc. has been placed on the Unfair List of the Portland-based Columbia-Pacific Building Trades Council.

 

Portlanders rally for health care reform

Portland joined more than 125 communities across the country March 4 for “Health Care Action Day” — the largest one-day demonstration ever held in support of comprehensive health care reform. More than 200 workers and concerned community members from union locals, retiree groups and grassroots community organizations participated in the Portland event.Participants gathered at Pioneer Courthouse Square before marching through downtown Portland streets behind a fire truck. The national “Health Care Action Day” was organized by Jobs With Justice in coalition with eight international unions.

 


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