Northwest Labor Press is an independent union-supported newspaper founded in 1900. Our print version is mailed twice a month to about 45,000 members of over three dozen local unions in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Our online version has been maintained here since 1997.
People
PERSONNEL REPORT
Sherman Henry and Lina Stepick leave LERC, ONA's director departs, and Mayor Wheeler reappoints Willy Myers to Prosper Portland.
Doctor Organizer: Joe Crane
In 2009, Joe Crane was working graveyard on the Portland Frito-Lay assembly line. Today he’s national organizing director at a doctors union.
Oregon honors first Education Support Professional of the Year, Paula Steinweg
The new award, for school support workers, is the result of an OSEA-backed bill passed by the Oregon Legislature in 2019.
Governor Brown nominates unionists
Several union figures were among the 76 individuals recently appointed by Oregon Governor Kate Brown to state board and commissions.
New workforce liaison at Oregon AFL-CIO
Josh Hall was president of United Steelworkers Local 7150. Now he'll help dislocated union workers get unemployment and other benefits.
Leadership change at Portland Jobs with Justice
Will Layng is leaving as executive director to return to SEIU, where he formerly worked as organizing director at Local 49.
Taking a building trades agenda to the Oregon Capitol
Electrician Wayne Chow, lobbying for the building trades in Salem, knows the difference a union makes, having suffered wage theft first hand.
Ready for prime time
A Portland building trades union member is a contestant on Season Two of CBS’ hit prime time reality show Tough as Nails.
IBEW’s Marcy Grail to chair Energy Facility Siting Council
The council is responsible for large electric generating facilities, transmission lines, gas pipelines, and radioactive waste disposal sites.
Building trades’ Camarillo named to I-5 Bridge advisory group
The bi-state group will develop recommendations for replacing the aging I-5 bridge over the Columbia River between Portland and Vancouver.
A dedicated union volunteer retires
Ellen Ino, a tenacious union volunteer and political campaigner, retired recently after decades of service to the labor movement.
Sheet metal worker by day, race car driver on weekends
Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 member Chris West competes in stock car races nearly every weekend throughout the summer.
New hands at helm of nurses union
Sarah Laslett joins ONA after 17 years as a labor educator. Her priorities will be organizing, empowering stewards, and bargaining for the common good.
Barbara Byrd wraps up 41-year career in labor movement
After 41 years as a labor educator and 14 years at the Oregon AFL-CIO, Barbara Byrd is retiring for real.
New leadership at the Oregon AFL-CIO
Graham Trainor, 38, and Christy O’Neill, 32, won the unanimous support of delegates at the Oregon AFL-CIO's biennial convention.
THE UNITER
Tapped for the job at a time of crisis, Tom Chamberlain helped reunify Oregon’s labor movement.
Union racer represents Local 701 training center on the speedway
Every Saturday from April to September, Operating Engineers Local 701 member Cory Garrison races his red 1970 Monte Carlo at Sunset Speedway.
New wage and hour chief comes to Oregon from the national union movement
Hired by Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle, former top building trades lobbyist Sonia Ramirez began her new position July 8.
A life-saving school bus driver
The focus and reflexes of a member of Local 757 may have saved lives in a near-miss last month.
Machinists District Lodge W24 rep Britt Cornman retires after decades in the labor movement
In a career that spanned mines, mills, railroad carrier, oil fields, and an assembly line, his support for the union once nearly got him killed.
