Monthly Archives: December, 2010

Nine children’s charities were presented with the proceeds of this year’s 20th annual Business Union and Labor Leaders Charity Golf Tournament. A total of $300,000 was distributed to local charities that benefit children needing long-term chronic care, short-term respite, and end-of-life care. Since its inception in 1990, the BULL session has raised over $4 million.

The Constructing Hope Pre-Apprenticeship Program held a graduation ceremony for 13 trainees Dec. 2 at the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute. Constructing Hope, a faith-based non-profit, recruits ex-offenders, minorities, and low-income residents for free training to build skills and knowledge of the construction industry.

Members of several trades unions were among scores of volunteers who helped build a new home for injured Iraq war veteran SPC Kevin Pannell. Pannell was serving in Iraq with the 1st Cavalry Division when he was severely injured on June 13, 2004.

For union members in need, by far the two biggest sources of help are unemployment insurance and food stamps. In the Portland area, unions refer hardship cases to Labor's Community Service Agency.

In their new book Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class, political scientists Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson demonstrate that America’s runaway inequality wasn’t caused by impersonal economic forces, but by a political system that has been hijacked by the super-rich. The Labor Press spoke with Pierson by phone.

Delta Air Lines customer service workers voted Dec. 7 not to join the Machinists. It was the fourth major union defeat at Delta since heavily unionized Northwest Airlines merged into largely nonunion Delta. Altogether, unions stood to gain 34,000 new members, but instead lost 17,000 existing members.

Oregon AFSCME staff rep Randy Ridderbusch has been named to Governor-elect John Kitzhaber’s transition team regarding the Department of Human Services, the Department of Corrections and the Oregon Youth Authority.

Several Portland State University students conducted oral history interviews with Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 retirees Paul Headley and Ken Richins.

Bob Baugh, former secretary-treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO and current executive director of the national AFL-CIO Industrial Union Council, received the Apollo Alliance’s Right Stuff Award. The award honors outstanding individuals working to catalyze the new clean energy economy.

The top union officer at Bend Area Transit has been fired for what he says are pretextual causes, after months of stepped-up scrutiny from management.

Voters in four Republican-dominated states passed measures Nov. 2 to ban the “card check” method of unionizing. But the measures may be struck down in the courts, because they encroach on rights protected by the National Labor Relations Act.

In a pair of votes in November, the Machinists lost a campaign to represent 13,800 Delta Air Lines workers. The votes follow on the heels of a Nov. 3 loss by Association of Flight Attendants among 20,000 Delta flight attendants.

Oregon Governor-elect John Kitzhaber campaigned on job creation, and even before taking office announced the formation of five teams aimed at helping grow Oregon’s economy. Each team will develop statutory and regulatory recommendations for the legislative session that begins Feb. 1.

The Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Administration has laid off 10 employees so far this year, including longtime labor liaison David Sparks.