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NEWSLETTER |
Past Newsletters |
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By Bruce Dennis Seventy-two members and/or guests attended the December Local 247 meeting. We had Mark Schnoor from Jobs With Justice and SEIU as guest speaker. Mark spoke about the upcoming Jobs With Justice banquet and touched on Portland School Board politics. Under reports we heard from John Schraner, Apprenticeship Coordinator, Joe Baron, political intern, Ed Glad; political organizer, and trustee Chet Caruthers. The Regional Council delegates gave extensive informational reports about the recent delegate training sponsored by the International. Retiree and former Local 247 financial secretary Leo Larsen wished everyone a Merry Christmas and presented the Local with a check for $110, which was collected by the retirees for the Food Bank. Our Metro representatives gave area reports and Organizer Jerry Auvil submitted a written report. Under new business a motion was passed to donate $247.00 to the neighborhood fundraising group “Helping Hands.” A motion was passed to send a letter to the Health and Welfare trustees regarding an increase to the lifetime maximum benefit. A scholarship was granted for members to attend a LERC class in February. There were also motions to match the Retirees collection and to give a Christmas bonus to our secretary. There were many other items of discussion under “Good of the Order.” For comprehensive, complete meeting information….. ATTEND your MEETINGS!! …. Help make the decisions that affect your life. |
General membership
Meets the second Tuesday, Jan. 14, at 7 p.m. at the Carpenters Hall, 2205 N.
Lombard, Portland.
Retirees
Retirees meet for lunch the second Monday, Jan. 13, at 11 a.m. at JJ North’s,
10520 NE Halsey, Portland.
Executive Board
Executive Board meets the fourth Tuesday, Jan. 28, at 7 p.m. at the Carpenters
Hall, 2205 N. Lombard, Portland.
In an Oct. 4 news interview, Carpenters and Joiners President Douglas J. McCarron defended his close ties with President Bush and Republicans and called for sweeping changes in building trade unions’ jurisdictional language to allow industry’s organized sector to regain market share. McCarron said his union’s stance is in lock step with its members’ position on politics, dismissing numerous published reports and criticism that label Carpenters as organized labor’s political renegade. He said 34 percent of the union’s members are Democrats, 28 percent are Republican, and the remainder are independents. “For us to be committed to one party exclusively would be saying that two-thirds of our members aren’t important. That’s not right,” he said. “We work both sides of the aisle.” McCarron said Bush is sincere in his concern for American workers. Carpenters last year severed their ties with AFL-CIO while reaffiliation talks make incremental progress.
The Bush White House in November began implementing its executive order banning project labor agreements on federal construction projects. The ban was one of the first of several anti-union executive orders Bush issued when he took office. The AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD) has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case after a federal appeals court upheld the Bush order in response to a legal challenge by the BCTD. The case is still pending. PLAs establish wage, benefit and working condition standards for construction projects and have been used by federal, state and local governments for more than 80 years.
Working families stepped up the pressure on Fidelity Investments, the world’s largest mutual fund, to account for how it uses its huge shareholder voting power — much of it gained through the assets it manages for union pension funds. In demonstrations in more than 20 cities and at Fidelity’s Boston headquarters Dec. 4, workers demanded the company drop its opposition to proposed U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules that would require mutual funds to disclose their votes at annual shareholder meetings. In response to a petition filed in December 2000 by the AFL-CIO, the SEC has proposed new rules to require mutual fund companies to disclose how they vote their equity holdings. The call for Fidelity to disclose its proxy votes is part of the union movement’s No More Business As Usual campaign, which seeks to improve corporate accountability and provide retirement security following recent corporate scandals. For more information, visit www.aflcio.org/fidelitydisclose
Downtown campaign: Equity Office Properties actions
The Metro Organizers have been quite busy with Millwright activities, Tradeshow activities, and the Downtown TI effort with both Equity Office Properties along with others. We have had three activities downtown all with a Thanksgiving theme. The first at Benjamin Franklin Plaza, on the 21st (12 people, The Congress Center on the 24th (18 people and the same day we brought 23 people to Randy Leonard’s swearing in at noon), and on Dec. 4 we had 16 people at One Pacific Square.
Although we had many conversations from these three leafleting activities with the security guards and the Equity Office building personnel some quite agitated, we have yet to receive anything from Equity. However, we did have a interesting call from one of our signatory subs regarding a non-union general inquiry about our actions downtown with Equity Office Properties. WE KNOW THIS IS CONFIRMATION THAT THEY HAVE BLINKED.
We are planning future actions against Equity and the below-area-standard contractors they have decided to use this year — Schiewe and R & H, along with a smattering of below area standard subs such as Metro Interiors, Commercial Interiors, Quality Acoustics.
 Local 247 trustee and delegate Joe “The Bull” Baron makes one of his many phone calls in relation to the November election. Good job, Joe! |
By Joe Baron
Political Director
As we enter into the New Year we can all do our part to improve out market share and make our Union a stronger, more unified labor organization. A few things that we can do and are ongoing are:
• Please register to vote. If you’re not registered or are unsure, please come in to the hall or visit our election board for a voter registration form.
• Take as many Journeyman upgrade classes as possible to increase our marketability and make ourselves more efficient workers. And please, if you sign up for a class, please attend or at least call the Training Center to let them know you’re not gong to be there.
Don’t forget the Jan. 14 Union meeting. We will have lots of tools for raffle prizes and the meetings will be shorter and more concise
Best Wishes for a Happy and Prosperous New Year!
 UBC Training Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. |
By Pete Savage
Local 247 Delegate
Recently your delegates were sent to the new Training Center in Las Vegas for classes. I have been a delegate for over 10 years and didn’t think I was in need of any training, however, I was dead wrong. This was the most eye-opening and invigorating training I have received since I have attended Council functions.
The training involved seminars on reporting, note-taking, conflict resolution as well as bottom-up organizing, i.e., carpenter to carpenter, the way all this started over a hundred years ago! (More to come on this subject.) General President McCarron was on hand the first night to give us a speech on what he sees as the role of the delegates in the new structure of the UBC and what goals he has set for us.
He stated that he wants to achieve a 70 percent market share in commercial work, then spread out to retake other markets such as residential. He seemed very genuine in his remarks and took all questions from the delegates straight on in the seminar without hesitation. He made himself available afterward for one-on-one discussions at a social hour. We might not always agree with him but his vision for us is clear, to be the best trained and most organized craft on this continent. He has personally committed to attending every training session for all the delegates. This will be two to three times a month for two years.
Brother McCarron believes that the delegates are
the frontline leaders of this organization, no longer just a conduit of
information. Your delegates are charged with and are responsible for organizing
and leading our individual locals in our struggle to achieve more work and
better pay for all carpenters.
In my opinion that should make the election for delegates the most important and
contested race at our elections. It is the avenue for you to get the type of
representation you want at the regional level that will effect the direction of
this organization. While we may have lost the right to vote for business agents,
we do have the right and responsibility to vote for our new leaders …Delegates.
Carpenters show up in force for the swearing in of Portland City Commissioner Randy Leonard.
