Mehrens
to retire as building trades leader
Wally Mehrens,
longtime executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbia-Pacific Building
and Construction Trades Council, announced that he will retire after
being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
School
district in Sandy forces strike in attempt to bust teachers union
As of press
time, 216 teachers were out on strike, and over 4,000 schoolchildren
and their parents were waiting to go back to school, but at the
Oregon Trail School District in Sandy, Boring and Welches, Oregon,
management was playing games.
Union
workers at Portland
Water Bureau at work rebuilding New Orleans
When
the call for help went out following Hurricane Katrina, the City
of Portland stepped up like no other. Portland sent a convoy of
equipment and 35 people for 30 days to help the New Orleans Sewerage
& Water Board get its system back up and running.
Senator
Smith supports minimum wage bill that would hurt lowest-paid workers
Oregon Republican
U.S. Senator Gordon Smith voted against a federal minimum wage proposal
Oct. 19 that would not have affected his lowest-paid constituents,
but later that same day he voted in support of an amendment that
would have severely impacted their pay.
AFSCME
lobbyist Botkin proposes to change hats
Longtime union
lobbyist Mary Botkin has resolved to take a new approach to politics.
After 20 years as an advocate for Oregon Council 75 of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Botkin,
57, is running as a Democrat for election to the Oregon House of
Representatives from House District 46.
Union
officials share insights on AFL-CIO breakup
Lawyers and law students from around the country got an earful about
labor's tumult at an Oct. 26-30 conference in Portland.
South
Waterfront gets ‘project apprenticeship agreement’
Nearly two years
in the making, the Portland Development Commission, Oregon Health
and Science University, developers and the Columbia-Pacific Building
Trades Council have finally signed a new "project apprenticeship
agreement" on a section of the South Waterfront Central District
Project.
SEIU
Local 49 members ratify new contract at Legacy Emanuel
Six weeks after
they went on strike for 24 hours, support workers at Legacy Emanuel
Hospital approved a new union contract by a five-to-one margin.
The contract covers about 400 janitors, cafeteria workers, nurse
assistants and emergency room aides, members of Service Employees
International Union Local 49.
Hillsboro
school employees reject outsourcing plan
Unionized support
workers at Hillsboro Public School District 1J sent a message to
the district: They will not be divided. By a two-to-one margin,
they voted down a district contract offer that would have allowed
management to contract-out the jobs of 56 custodians, and would
have required about a third of new hires to pay a portion of their
health care premiums.
Portland
Public Schools files legal charges against unions
Portland Public
Schools filed an unfair labor practice charge with the
Oregon Employment Relations Board Oct. 20 alleging that two District
Council
of Unions sub-group have refused to honor tentative agreements they
signed with the school district.
Labor
History panel reports parallels,
contrasts between 2005 and
1905
The committee
spent months poring over history books, minutes from union meetings
and archives of the Portland Labor Press (now the Northwest Labor
Press) with their focus on 1905. They presented their findings as
the Solidarity News Network, reporting from a time warp that took
reporters back 100 years.
NECA-IBEW
apprenticeship program ‘rescues’ Parkrose High School
students
When Parkrose
High School proved to be too small, the National Electrical Contractors
Association-International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local
48 offered space in its training center for students to take the
PSAT.
Analysis
Think
again
A
regular column by Oregon AFL-CIO President Tim Nesbitt
What
Bill Sizemore taught us
Sizemore's attacks united our unions as nothing had before. The
more threats we faced, the more we united and toughened our response.
In that sense, Sizemore was the perfect "good enemy."
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