18,300 Machinists strike Boeing in three states
Machinists who assemble commercial airplanes and some key components at Boeing plants in Washington, Oregon and Kansas walked off the job Sept. 2 after voting by an 86 percent margin to reject the company's final offer. Approximately 850 workers are members of Portland-based Machinists Lodge 63 employed at the Boeing plant at 19000 NE Sandy Blvd., Gresham. Key issues in the strike include Boeing’s failure to adequately increase pension formulas and higher health care costs.

[Left: Machinists President Tom Buffenbarger made an unexpected Labor Day visit to the picket line in Gresham.]

AFL-CIO mobilizes 1,000 Katrina volunteers
With tens of thousands of Gulf Coast unionists and their families homeless, jobless and in need of aid in the wake of Hurricane Katrina's devastation, the national AFL-CIO is mobilizing at least 1,000 volunteers to Red Cross relief sites.
Millionaire hospital CEO offers workers 25 cent raises; Workers strike
After working without a contract since July 31, several hundred of Legacy Emanuel hospital's lowest-paid workers put on the purple T-shirts of their union, the Service Employees International Union, and went on strike Aug. 31 for 24 hours. Legacy says it won’t give them more than 2.5 percent annual increases, though last year it gave its chief executive officer, Robert J. Pallari, a 58 percent raise.
Working America hits 1 million-member mark
Working America, the AFL-CIO-created organization for workers without a union, announced Aug. 31 that it has grown to one million members. That figure includes 16,000 who have signed up in Oregon since Working America opened a local office this March.
LERC scrambles to avoid budget axe
As the dust settles from this year’s legislative budget battles, staff at one program important to organized labor are alarmed by the size of the expected budget cut. The Labor Education and Research Center of the University of Oregon helps Oregon unions with research and training.
Bakers sign contracts at four locations
Contracts were ratified at Franz Bakery in Portland, Williams Bakery in Eugene, Kroger's Clackamas Bakery and Bimbo Bakeries/Oroweat in Beaverton. The union represents approximately 650 employees at the four plants.
Workers ratify new three-year deal at Cascade General Ship Repair
Workers ratified a new three-year contract at Cascade General Ship Repair last month by a 2-to-1 margin. Eleven union locals representing approximately 340 workers negotiate under the umbrella of the Metal Trades Council of Portland and Vicinity. The previous contract expired June 30.
CWA 7901 adds Portland call center workers
As part of a national wave of unionizing at Cingular Wireless, 444 Portland
call center employees will soon have the protection of a national contract
bargained by Communications Workers of America (CWA).

Analysis

Think again
A regular column by Oregon AFL-CIO President Tim Nesbitt
Labor’s lessons from the storm
Tragically, it took a raging storm to tear away the psychological blinders that have kept so many Americans from confronting the contradictions of a “robust” economy that can’t deliver good jobs for a majority of its working families.