November 3, 2006 Volume 107 Number 21
News
 

Movie about Seattle WTO protests will be made in Canada
The film, written and directed by Irish actor Stuart Townsend, will star Charlize Theron, Woody Harrelson, and hip-hop artist André Benjamin of the group OutKast. Cost savings were the chief factor in the choice of Vancouver, B.C. over Seattle, but it may be hard for the film to escape the irony of that choice.
SEIU’s Andy Stern: The new face of labor
SEIU President Andy Stern, who led a group of unions to leave the AFL-CIO last year, was in Portland Oct. 17 to meet with his members and give a public talk about his new book A Country That Works. Stern took some time to answer questions from NW Labor Press associate editor Don McIntosh about the split, foreign trade, health care, and politics.
Counting every ballot
After the events of Ohio and Florida, unions aren’t in the mood for faith-based elections. The national AFL-CIO sent out staff to investigate the integrity of voting systems, and has targeted 23 communities in six states for close monitoring on Election Day.
Mayor taps Mohlis for PDC
Portland Mayor Tom Potter has appointed John Mohlis, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbia-Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council, as a commissioner on the Portland Development Commission.
In campaign ads, Oregon Republicans paint unions as ‘extreme’
Unions are extremist groups, and candidates supported by unions shouldn�t be trusted by voters. At least, that�s the basic message of several Republican political campaigns in Oregon, which are slamming Oregon Democrats for getting support from unions.
Supervisor ruling spurs NLRB to re-examine 54 cases
Unions� worst fears about a recent legal decision may be coming true. When the National Labor Relations Board announced Oct. 3 that hospital charge nurses are supervisors and therefore can�t belong to a union, labor said the decision would soon apply to other kinds of workers. Two weeks after that decision, the NLRB told its regional directors to re-examine 54 legal cases in light of the newly established definition of supervisor.
Construction unions, housing groups hatch plan to settle prevailing wage issue
Oregon construction unions and nonprofit housing developers will co-sponsor legislation in 2007 to better clarify � or even exempt � the prevailing wage law on certain housing projects.

Analysis
Think again
By Tim Nesbitt
My 'six pick' predictions for Oregon’s next Legislature
The contests for governor and the State Legislature in Oregon this year are relatively easy to handicap. The real races start after the election, when the stakes will be higher and the outcomes tougher to predict.