Northwest Labor Press: December 2, 2005

December 2 , 2005 Volume 106 Number 23

News

Engineers picket Hollywood
Operating Engineers Local 701 members put up a picket last month on Westech Construction at Hollywood Station. The project is a two three-story, mixed-use buildings located at NE 42nd and Halsey Street in Portland. According to the union, Westech of Portland employs operators at wages and benefits below area standards. The company is on the unfair list of the Columbia-Pacific Building Trades Council.

AFL-CIO and Change to Win announce deal to preserve local labor unity
Though some details remain to be settled, the national AFL-CIO announced Nov. 16 it will begin issuing "Solidarity Charters" to locals whose unions disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO and joined the Change to Win federation. In Oregon, the SEIU Local 503 Executive Board voted to reaffiliate with the Oregon AFL-CIO.
School employees move closer to strike at Portland School District
Talks between the District Council of Unions and the Portland School District collapsed Nov. 18, prompting union officials to start making arrangements for a potential strike.
Global workers’ rights rallies planned Dec. 10
In Portland, across the United States, and elsewhere in the world, trade unionists will gather Dec. 10 in honor of a document — the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Momentum builds for critics of Wal-Mart
For “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price,” documentary director Robert Greenwald investigated nearly every claim Wal-Mart detractors make. The result is a devastating critique of the company, which couldn’t be timelier, as Wal-Mart faces a growing backlash for its business practices.
Oregon AFL-CIO to consider Kyoto Protocol resolution at board meeting
A resolution to endorse the Kyoto Protocol was referred it to the Oregon AFL-CIO General Board. The Kyoto Protocol is a commitment by developed nations to reduce emissions of “greenhouse” gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) that are contributing to global warming.
Kulongoski names Chris Warner as new labor liaison
Oregon governor Ted Kulongoski has appointed a new liaison to organized labor. Chris Warner assumed the new post mid-November; the position became vacant when Tom Chamberlain left to become president of the Oregon AFL-CIO.
Sandy teachers'strike ends after 16 days on picket line
Teachers in Sandy, Welches and Boring, Oregon, went back to work Nov. 17 when a new union contract ended a 16-day strike. It was the second-longest teacher strike in Oregon.

Analysis

Think again
A regular column by Tim Nesbitt
A little DNA testing tells a lot about Oregon job creation
You may have missed the press release, but Oregon now has one of the best job-creating economies in the nation. So it won't be long before Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Republican legislative leaders, whose ideas about government's role in the economy don't often coincide, start bragging that they made it happen. Victory has a thousand fathers. But we don't usually do any DNA testing.

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