NEWSLETTERJanuary 2009 |
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General membership
General membership meets the second Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 6 p.m. at the
Carpenters Hall, 2215 N. Lombard, Portland. If you have any questions, Please
feel free to contact the office at 503-289-9632.
Retirees
Retirees meet for lunch the second Monday, Jan. 12, at 11 a.m. at Hometown
Buffet, 10452A SE Washington St., Portland.
Executive Board
Executive Board meets the fourth Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 6:30 p.m. at the
Carpenters Hall, 2215N. Lombard, Portland.
Newsletter committee
Newsletter committee meets the second Thursday, Jan. 8, at 6:30 p.m., first
Floor, Small Conference Room, Carpenters Hall, 2215 N. Lombard, Portland.
By Michael Brassell
Member, Local 247
On January 20, our new president, Barack Obama, will be sworn in. During his campaign, candidate Obama stressed environmental issues, including a pledge to create 5 million new jobs by spending $15 billion a year for a decade on alternative energy. He's pledged to make public buildings more efficient, modernize the electricity grid, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and preserve natural resources. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERNWRPaZ22A
There's a lot of talk about a new economy nowadays. Last time we talked about a new economy, we sawmills close down. This is why it's critical that any "new economy," and "green stimulus" mean family wages and jobs for carpenters. Cause it isn't enough to have a job if you're making McDonalds wages.
The other day, myself and three other carpenters attended a MACG Sustainable Works action assembly. Obama got his start as a community organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation. MACG, the Metropolitan Alliance for Common Good, is the local chapter of (IAF.) They're organizing a "Sustainable Works" pilot project that could mean real jobs for carpenters. The bottom line for this economic stimulus project is three points:
At this meeting, Multnomah County commissioner Jeff Cogen, Steve Lacey with the Energy Trust of Oregon, and Michael Armstrong with the Portland Office of Sustainable Development enthusiastically agreed to work with MACG on creating a funding pool for this project. Additionally, a whole host of MACG institutional partners agreed to do the leg work to make this project happen (around 130 people.) How will this funding work? The idea is to create a rotating pool of money and credit from which the utilities can finance energy efficiency upgrades on your house. If you agree, you get a home that is warmer in the winter and colder in the summer. For starters this could include new windows and sealing, insulation, energy efficient furnaces and flash water heaters. The amount of energy homes use goes down. The value of your home increases. Our utility bills stay the same because the energy cost savings are canceled out by the cost of this work, which is amortized into your utility bill over time, making this project cost-neutral to the home owner.
The work will be certified with the Sustainable Works brand, which means that
it is sustainable for us workers and our environment. Certification and access
to this funding pool will require that area standard wages be paid. Imagine
union carpenters, insulators, sheet metal, and mechanical workers, improving the
living conditions of everyday homeowners across this city and state. Carpenters
shirts everywhere. Churches and community groups fighting for us, and our
foothold in a greener residential market. Change is possible. Creating
certification requirements for this green build stimulus will gain us vital
market share in a newer more energy efficient residential market. Our training
center can be the "certified trainer" in this new standard. MACG seeks to have
at least one apprentice for every journeyman on the job. When it comes to energy
upgrades, scams abound, which is why homes must be pre- and post- tested.
Quality control should be done by certified carpenters. The approach is similar
to our foothold on panic hardware in hospitals. The Energy Trust, MACG, and
Mount Hood Community College have expressed interest in working with us to
develop curriculum.
MACG and the IAF have a working model of this project doing industrial upgrades
in Spokane, Washington. The Portland "Sustainable Works" project seeks to prove
this model in the residential market and take it to scale with a pilot project
of 50 homes. If this succeeds, they intend to take this across the city and
state, block by block. This spring we will be sponsoring initiatives in the
locals, asking our union memberships, delegates, and leaders to get involved,
and take what is rightfully ours.
By Gabriel Triplett
Member, Local 247
As our country slips further and further down the road of recession, toward the dreaded destination of a Great Depression, there is only one thing that can stop it: organized labor. Lakethe 1930s, the working class is slipping further and further into poverty, and like the 1930s, it's going to take militant organized direct action touring us out of that poverty.
After Bank of America received a bailout of over $25 billion of taxpayer
money, they did what most Americans knew they would: They hoarded it for their
own interest. Bank of America cut off all operating credit to Republic Doors and
Windows. The day after the bank's decision, the company announced that it was
shutting down its Chicago factory. As if that wasn't bad enough, the bank, with
its pockets full of taxpayer money, refused to release the money the company
needed to pay its workers their vacation pay and other compensations that are
mandatory under U.S. law.
All 260 members of the United Electrical Workers Local 1110, in Chicago, were
laid off from their job at Republic Doors and Windows on Dec. 2, with only three
days notice. Instead of taking the bad news back home to their families and
excepting the layoff as "just the way it is," the workers invoked a tactic of
the early-to-mid1900s. They occupied their factory and refused to leave until
their demands were met and justice was achieved.
Weeks before the company announced its decision to close, union leaders in the factory saw it coming. Machines in the factory were beginning to go missing. Union leaders staked out the factory at night and followed machines from the factory to the railyards. Richard Gillman, the owner of Republic, had secretly set up another company, Echo Windows LLC, which bought another Doors and Windows factory in Red Oak, Iowa which employs 102 people (all non union). When the company gave the workers their three-day notice and informed the workers they would not be receiving their vacation pay or their 60-day severance, union leaders called the vote on the sit-in. The vote was unanimous, and workers began shouting "Si, se puede" or "yes we can."
"I ain't got no other choice," Alexis McCoy,32, a driver's assistant, said later. "I have a newborn. I have to take care of my family."
Negotiations between the union, Bank of America, and Republic began three
days after the vote was taken. During the negotiations, Bank of America offered
to loan the company $1.34million.Also, the Midwest Chairman of JP Morgan Chase,
who owned 40 percent of the company, agreed to lend an additional $400,000. The
only sticking point in negotiations was Richard Gillman's insistence on the new
loans covering his lease on his BMW and Mercedes, as well as 8weeks of his
salary at $225,000 a year. In the edit was agreed that only the workers would
benefit from the new loans.
Through their courageous action of occupation, the workers won back their
fundamental rights, fair compensation of their banked vacation hours, 60 days of
severance, pay for their last week of work, and two months of health coverage.
The rank and file approved the agreement unanimously. Chants of "yes we can"
changed to" yes we did."
It must be said that the 260 workers wouldn't have won this battle by themselves. Through benefits held around the country, letters of solidarity from unions around the world, and the support of local unions in Chicago, global labor took on and beat global capital. As the government continues to bail out corporations and corporations continue to sell out workers, workers must unite. We must unite across trade lines, we must unite across industrial lines, and we must unite across national borders. The whole world is changing, and our economy is crumbling. Wean either let those in power build a world based on greed where workers fight amongst themselves for crumbs while the few enjoy all the good things in life, or we can build a world based inequality where workers stand together and insist on their fair share of the pie and take control over their work places. For our families and for this country's future, let's take our lead from the workers in Chicago and stand together and build something better.
Help the work along.
Note: information for this article was gathered from the following sites. www.nytimes.com www.ueunion.org .
The idea is to list all the information that is shared at our monthly Steering Committee-now it's all here in one place, for folks to use in their union newsletters, church bulletins, e-mail lists, or just to stick up on the fridge. (Apologies in advance or any accidental omissions; please check with event organizers to confirm any details, or call JWJ 503-236-5573) For more information or to make an online donation please visit www.jwjpdx.org
THE VOTES ARE COUNTED AND THE WINNERS ARE IN: JOBS WITH JUSTICE ELECTS NEW GRINCHES OF THE YEAR!
Dave and Ed Vander Pol, owners of Oak Harbor Freight Lines, were elected Grinches of the Yea r with over 900 votes at the 2008 Grinch Party. The Grinch brothers forced their workers to go on strike in September and then cut health and retirement benefits for their employees and retirees. They've been charged with multiple unfair labor practices and are refusing to bargain while the workers who built their company faced Christmas on the picket line. Ed and Dave certainly deserve this dubious honor. Now it's time to deliver the prize!
Pam Vukovich, union-busting CFO of Legacy hospital was the surprise runner-up, and Oregon's most persistent racketeer, Bill Sizemore, came in third and was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award for costing Oregonians tens of millions of dollars to defeat his anti-worker ballot initiatives.
HOW ABOUT SOME HUMAN RIGHTS? TAKE ACTION! SUPPORT THE EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE ACT
Jobs with Justice is part of the Million Member Mobilization for the Employee Free Choice Act. Why? Because this important legislation protects our human right to organize and collectively bargain. How? By fixing broken labor law and giving America's workers a fair and simple path to form a union so they can earn better wages, health benefits and improved working conditions. Our goal in Portland is to get 2,000 people to add their voice to the more than one Million Strong for the Employee Free Choice Act.
Sign our petition here:
www.freechoiceact.org/page/s/jwj?source=c&subsource=p .
Read more at:
www.AmericanRightsatWork.org
UPCOMING EVENTS
Portland Jobs with Justice Annual Planning Retreat - Friday January 23 and Saturday January 24-It is that time of year again where we evaluate past work and plan for upcoming year. Join us as we talk about our values and vision and think about our strategy and goals. This year's retreat will be held at the Menucha Retreat center. Please let us know if you would like to attend. Contact Margaret at503-236-5573 or by e-mail at Margaret@jwjpdx.org
Town Hall on the Economic Crisis-Saturday, January 31,1-5 p.m. (Doors open at 12:30 p.m., Reception to follow at 5 p.m.)-Jobs with Justice and a growing number of organizations* invite you to a Town Hall on the Economic Crisis. We are planning this event with a number of groups and individuals and are anticipating a large gathering. We have a great opportunity now to organize to get not just bailout, but an economy that provides opportunity for working people, an economy that helps communities thrive and reverses decades of growing in equality, take-backs, union busting, unfair trade agreements, cuts in health care, climate change and more. We have an opportunity at the same time to act decisively on climate change .The mood is changing in the country with the public outcry against the Wall St. bailout and the end of a virulently anti-worker administration. In these extraordinary times, it is so important that we be proactive, and learn, strategize and organize together! At the Town Hall we will hear about how we got into this economic crisis as well as have presentations and discussions about our vision and concrete plans for getting out. We will hear from panelists with experience and expertise and we'll have discussions in which we will pool our own experiences and strategies on different aspects of the crisis and solutions. We would appreciate hearing about your ideas and fight-back strategies awe continue our planning process. Many of us have been rightly outraged at the $700 billion bailout that went to Wall Street instead of to the real economy. That money hasn't even been used to prime the pump, instead too much of it has gone to CEO salaries, shareholder dividends, mergers and parties. We know that this has got to be turned around! FirstUnitarianChurch,1011 SW12th - SW12th and Main* Co-sponsoring organizations (partial list): Jobs with Justice, Economic Justice Action Group of the 1st Unitarian Church, Oregon Action, AFT Healthcare Northwest, Alliance for Democracy, Center for Intercultural Organizing, ILWU Local 8,AFSCMECouncil 75,Working Families Party, National Lawyers Guild, Oregon Fair Trade Campaign. For more information or of your organization would like to co-sponsor this event please call Andrea at 503-236-5573 or email andrea@jwjpdx.org
Annual Faith-Labor Breakfast-February 24-Portland Jobs with Justice Faith-Labor Committee, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, the Northwest Oregon Labor Council and Oregon Farm worker Ministries, invite clergy, lay leaders, and trade union activists to gather for prayer, fellowship and breakfast. Our purpose is simple: to celebrate and build on the long history of our shared values and shared struggles for justice and to continue to build relationships. Last year, over 100 clergy, labor leaders, union members and other people of faith gathered to explore faith and labor connections from the past, present and possibilities for the future. This year's breakfast will focus on the concept of power by exploring the beauty of collective power and redefining its potential for the common good. As labor unionists and people of faith, we raise our voices for justice. Let's share our stories at the breakfast.
We look forward to seeing you February 24.Please contact Portland Jobs with Justice if you have any questions or want to learn more about our role in helping bring faith community members and labor activists together.
Cost for breakfast is $7 per person. Details on time and location TBA. Please register by February 19.Contact Eliana 503-236-5573 or by email at eliana@jwjpdx.org
UPCOMING JWJ COMMITTEE MEETINGS
(Call the office at 503-236-5573 to find out about other committees, including Immigrant Rights, Media, Health Care and Global Justice)
Global Justice Committee, TBA
Healthcare Committee, Wednesday, Jan.7,6:15 p.m., Location TBA
Economic Crisis Committee,Wednesday,Jan.7,6:30 p.m., SEIU Local 49,3536 SE 26th
JWJ Steering Committee, Jan.5,5:30 pm,6025 E. Burnside
Faith Labor Committee, TBA
Immigrant Rights Committee, TBA
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Monthly dues
Carpenter & Scaffold Erector Apprentice Carpenter
$18.00 Reduced quarterly dues Payments for each quarter are due prior to the first day of the quarter. Payments received after the quarter starts will be applied at the monthly rate as shown above.
1st Quarter Due by 12-31-08
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Carpenter & Scaffold Erector
Apprentice Carpenter $51.00
Interior Exterior Specialist $87.00 Journeyman Commercial $87.00 Journeyman Residential $78.00 Journeyman Floor layer $78.00 Journeyman Scaffold Erector $87.00 Tradeshow Carpenter $60.00
Reduced yearly dues Carpenter & Scaffold Erector
Apprentice Carpenter $198.00
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