Labor headlines from the February 20, 1998, edition of the Northwest Labor Press

Living wage initiative moves toward passage

Nearly 150 people jammed into the Musicians Hall in northeast Portland Feb. 12 to hear how little that employers who contract with the city and Multnomah County are paying their employees.

Transit Union battles Laidlaw Inc.

Laidlaw Inc., a multi-billion-dollar corporation based in Canada, is seemingly thumbing its nose at labor laws in the United States and getting away with it, while Oregon school districts that it has contracts with complain about poor service, charged Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 757.

Kitzhaber wants four more years

A day before he was to embark on a series of press conferences throughout the state to announce plans for his political future, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber let out a little secret. He told a crowd of about 90 union leaders that he would, in fact, run for re-election.