Richard Beetle elected business manager of Laborers Local 483


Longtime union activist Richard “Buz” Beetle won election as business manager of Portland Laborers Local 483, defeating incumbent Wayne Marine in a June 15 union election.

Local 483, also known as the Municipal Employees, is a public sector local affiliated with the Laborers International Union of North America (LIUNA). The local has seven union contracts covering 840 members, including street repair workers, parks employees, and wastewater treatment workers at the City of Portland; gardeners at Portland Habilitation Center; and workers at the Oregon Zoo, Port of Portland, and the City of Mt. Angel.

Beetle, 57, is a Wastewater Treatment Operator II and a 29-year employee of the City of Portland Bureau of Environmental Services. Friends call him “Buz,” a nickname given him by his sister. Born in Edgartown, Massachusetts, he traces his heritage to a Beetle who settled Martha’s Vineyard in 1691.

His life in the union movement began at a bag factory in Joplin, Missouri, in 1971. There, printed bags for companies like McDonalds were produced. The Joplin plant was the only non-union facility out of three factories owned by Bagkraft, and it had all the company’s oldest, most dangerous equipment, Beetle said.

“I saw people losing thumbs on open rollers; people were encouraged to clean plates while the rollers were running.”

So Beetle and others contacted the Typographical Union, and began a clandestine union campaign. Management threatened to close the plant if the union won, and the union lost by a narrow margin. Beetle, a known union supporter, was fired on trumped-up charges. After the National Labor Relations Board investigated the case, it ordered the company to offer him reinstatement and $700 back pay.

He took the back pay but turned down the reinstatement, deciding instead to take a scholarship offered by the newly-created Environmental Protection Agency to study wastewater treatment.

“Clean water in the early 1970s was a funded mandate,” Beetle said, “unlike today.”

“Congress made a jobs bill of it to make cities revamp and modernize their water treatment facilities. It created a huge draw on qualified operators.”

So Beetle studied environmental health at the Southeast Missouri State University, and went to work at a facility in Texas. When he heard that wastewater treatment workers in Portland, Oregon had a union, he packed his bags and applied for a job there.

In Portland, he and his wife Myra, raised two children: Justin, who now works as an apprentice with Carpenters Local 247; and Kara, who works for the State of Oregon in social services.

Once at the Portland wastewater facility, Beetle became involved in the union. For the last 15 years, he has served as the local’s secretary-treasurer, a volunteer post. Now that he’s been elected business manager, the local’s only full-time position, he’s had to take a leave-of-absence from the bureau.

“It’s going to be hard to walk away from it. It’s a good mission — clean water. How could you argue with that?”

But the new job will allow him to work full time doing what he believes in — building the union and practicing solidarity.

Beetle ran as part of a slate of candidates who were also elected, including Gannon Sorg, recording secretary; and Tim Meyer and Dan Forner, at-large Executive Board members. Also elected June 15 were Troy Hogeland, president, and Myron Hall, secretary-treasurer, both of whom ran unopposed. Incumbent vice president Bruce Easley won re-election on Marine’s slate, defeating challenger Paul LaCroix.

Beetle and his slate took office June 22.

The slate ran on a health care platform. Members were unhappy with the caps on employer contributions contained in the last contract, Beetle said. Also objectionable: the fact that the plan is owned by the city; union members can only advise the plan on how to cut costs. Beetle said he would like to negotiate a move to a jointly administered health plan where union trustees would be equal to management trustees in making decisions about coverage, co-pays, and so on.

Also on the agenda:
• A more aggressive “in the employer’s face” contract bargaining campaign;
• Defense of pension rights;
• Full financial accountability for union expenses; and
• Renewed emphasis on member organizing.
And Beetle, who has been active in every union ballot measure campaign for a decade and a half, says under his leadership Local 483 will continue its efforts to register members to vote — and give them a reason to do so.

“The labor movement is what has made public employers good employers,” Beetle said, “so public employees have a real huge stake in the union.”

The Local’s largest contract, covering its 640 employees at the City of Portland, is up for renewal in July 2006. Beetle said he’s encouraged by the composition of the current city council.

“Our bosses are political. And because of what’s happening in the private sector, the public sector is becoming the last stronghold of unions.”


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