At the March 10 membership meeting of Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 11, Howard Bell ran unopposed and was re-elected to a second three-year term as executive secretary-treasurer, the local’s top office. Local 11 represents workers at Northwest Natural and employees of the Clark and Skamania counties, plus office workers at unions and dozens of small office employers, about 1,700 active members in all.
Bell, 62, says he learned a lot in his first three years. He first won election in 2023 in a successful challenge to long-time incumbent Maureen Goldberg. He came into office after 34 years at Northwest Natural as the kind of union member that read his union contract and wouldn’t rest until he understood it.
Local 11 has grown by about 200 members since he took office, adding newly unionized units at Reed College, Oregon Tilth, and International Rescue Committee and bringing city planners into the existing unit at the City of Vancouver.
The local also hired a full-time organizer, added stewards, and now holds regular steward trainings. It also brought in the Labor Education and Research Center at the University of Oregon to conduct strike and contract action trainings.
Bell said those investments helped the local win some of the best contracts in its history, as members got more involved and pushed for raises to catch up with several years of high inflation.
At the City of Vancouver, workers won back double time pay when they work on a holiday, something the union had given up in a previous contract.
“People tell you, if you lose something, you’ll never get it back,” Bell said. “Well, we got double time back.”
Union bargaining teams insisted on keeping negotiation sessions open to members to attend, and though just a few members sat in and observed, every contract that was bargained had extra witnesses who took information back to their coworkers, Bell said.
“It’s better for us,” Bell said. “They can see how their employer feels about them.”
At Clark County, Local 11 members won payouts of up to $20,000 last year as part of an arbitrator’s decision that the county violated a “me too” contract promise when it gave the county manager much bigger raises than it gave members.
Local 11 hasn’t historically been politically involved, but Bell says he’s now testified at least half a dozen times against proposals to curtail the use of natural gas, which could cause job losses at Northwest Natural. Northwest Natural, with about 630 members, is Local 11’s largest unit. Its contract with the natural gas utility expires in June 2028.
Bell also led a reform of the dues structure, approved by members, to put Local 11 on more secure footing. Dues — 1.5% of gross wages — have been capped at $90 a month. Now that cap will rise 1.5% a year to take inflation into account.
If growth continues, Bell says he’d like to be able to expand the union’s Vancouver hall, adding another building to serve as a bigger meeting room with a kitchen. Currently the hall’s largest meeting space can’t accommodate more than 50 attendees and can feel cramped.
Besides Bell, Local 11’s officers are:
- President Karyn Morrison (Local 11)
- Vice President John Goebel (NW Natural)
- Labor Organization Representative Teal Dunbar (Labor’s Community Service Agency)
- Public Employees Representatives Kim King (Area Agency on Aging & Disabilities) and Marcee Wright (Clark County)
- Utilities Representatives Jennifer Grahn and Irene Pirtle (NWN)
- At-Large Representatives Autumn Sailer (Clark County), Paris Heart-Hester (Area Agency on Aging & Disabilities), and Gideon Faulconer (Vancouver Housing Authority)
- Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Clover (IBEW Local 48)
- Recording Secretary Sandoz Zimmerly (IBEW Local 48)
- Trustees Linda Pritchard (Clark County), Shawntina Scott (NWN), and Hailey Dorr (NWN)
