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NEWSLETTER |
Past Newsletters |
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By Bruce Dennis
President
 247 delegate John Hahn recieves a jacket for his work as a Union steward.
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We had 72 members in attendance at our August regular meeting. Republican Jim Zupanic who is running for Oregon House District #38 addressed the members regarding his campaign. He advocates steady school district financing and he also expressed support for Unions.
Under reports, we heard from John Schraner regarding training and the Council scholarship golf tournament, Dave Royer thanked the Local for paying for the retirees luncheon and all of your delegates reported on various parts of the recent annual meeting of the Pacific NW Regional Council of Carpenters. We also had representative reports from Ken Kanooth, Bruce Ashback, Chet Caruthers, Dave Oury and myself. Joe Baron and Darell Duffy reported on our Political Committee; Jason Sheckler gave a Jobs with Justice report; Dave Sprenger covered the recent LERC classes; and V.P. Willie Gore gave us a final picnic report.
Daniel Ewing was present to receive his journeyman certificate. Under New Business, a resolution supported the Longshoreman negotiation process calling for no intervention by President Bush and the National Guard was passed. A motion was also passed calling for a gift and thanks to Brother Tom Daugherty for his service as a 247 officer. The evening was warm and the meeting probably lasted a little too long….but we still need as much participation as possible. See you next month.
General membership
Meets the second Tuesday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Carpenters Hall, 2205 N. Lombard, Portland. Democratic State Representative Laurie
Monnes-Anderson will speak at the meeting.
Retirees
Retirees meet for lunch the second Monday, Sept. 9, at 11 a.m. at JJ North’s, 10520 NE Halsey, Portland.
Executive Board
Executive Board meets the fourth Tuesday, Sept. 24, at 7 p.m. at the Carpenters Hall, 2205 N. Lombard, Portland.
Carpenters 247 Scholarship goes unclaimed
Virtually all children and grandchildren of 247 members have already covered the financing of their college education. Or … we don’t have many college students. Or … hardly anyone reads or pays attention to this newsletter.
The Scholarship Committee only received one application for the 247 scholarship and that was rejected because the Labor essay was not original material. It was primarily copied off the Internet or from some other source. A scholarship could still be awarded for this upcoming school year, if the membership approves and if we get any interest from students. If anyone is interested, please contact the Scholarship Committee.
 Local 247 Regional Council delegates took the Harley to the recent Council annual meeting to make a final push selling tickets before the picnic on Aug. 25. |
We’ll have a full report on the picnic in the next issue of the newsletter. Check the Web site for pictures.
Mike Monteleone from Madras, Ore., was the winner of the Harley-Davidson. Phil Ford won second prize of $1,000. Dave Morgan won $750. Art Cortez won $500. Doernbecher Children’s Hospital will also receive $5,000 as a result of the raffle.
Carpenters donate labor to 9-11 exhibit
Gene Picariello and Bruce Dennis of Local 247 donated their labor to install “Heroes Among Us,” an exhibit of drawings, watercolors and paintings by dozens of veteran comic book artists that mourn the devastation of the events of Sept. 11 and celebrate the contributions of everyday heroes in their wake. The exhibit runs through Sept. 22 at Lloyd Center, lower level.
By Joe Whitney
247 Regional Council Delegate
Why don’t we? Well, that’s a pretty good question and I imagine that whomever you ask will have a different and probably logical answer, at least to them. One example might be “I can’t find the time” or the Blazers or the Mariners are playing that night. (They can’t use football because they play very few Tuesday night games.) I don’t have a babysitter, I have a headache, I’m too tired, and they probably won’t talk about anything of interest tonight anyway. Any of these excuses sound familiar? One of my personal favorites is “way too long and way too boring”. I guess that I’ll just leave my future in the hands of those who do attend.
Isn’t that what you’re saying? Maybe that statement is a little drastic, but isn’t that what you’re doing when you go to work uninformed or unprepared. By that I mean, at the meetings, we have a wide variety of topics that are discussed, not just political. Your respective Business Agents are there, along with Organizers, Delegates, Stewards and representatives from the Training Center. You can learn an awful lot of what is going on around you simply by attending a meeting once a month. Right now, membership is at an all-time high, while attendance is at an all-time low. Is it fair that the ones that do attend get to make decisions that could affect you, without you being present? Are you not interested in where the work is and where the work is going to be coming up in the near future? Part of the agenda is that the Business Agents report on up and coming work, if you have a problem at work (and you don’t have a Steward or even if you do), isn’t it logical to bring it up in front of the membership and the leaders to try and find a solution? I mean they’re all there, your fellow brothers and sisters and your agents. “Where there’s a will there’s a way” and Brothers and Sisters, there’s a lot of will at our local meetings. A good example of non-attendance would be the mail-out questionnaires that went out prior to the vote on contract ratification. What should we do with our increase? Out of over 1,100 members, a meager 16 percent of the questionnaires came back, that didn’t look too good for our Union.
Leaders who were working hard to get that raise in wages for us. When it came time to vote, I myself got at least two calls from volunteers making sure that I knew when and where the voting was to take place. What kind of response was there? Right around 200 members voted. After all it is your money and it was your contract and the few that did show up made that decision for you. So if you didn’t like the outcome and if you didn’t vote, I guess that’s too bad. This is America and majority rules, that’s the way it’s been as long as I can remember. Or is it that you simply don’t care about your future or your family? Do you want to go to work uninformed and wait to hear it second-hand? I know that as a Steward, I take notes at the meetings and pass it on to the other carpenters the next day. But, not everyone takes notes and the people that attend the meetings are not on every job in the Portland and surrounding area so there is a lot of information that just doesn’t get passed on. Going back to the reasons for not attending, yes, it’s true, there are the usual blowhards that come in unresearched and uninformed and only think of themselves, but they only get to talk during the “Good of the Order” segment of the meetings and (Thank you Lord), they only get two minutes to speak their mind, but that goes for everyone. If you have something to say, “Say it.” It helps to get things off of your chest and it helps to let everyone else know that something needs attention. The “Good of the Order” is for all, not just the people in charge. No one to watch your kids? Well, kids are welcome and kids do come (they also qualify for that extra raffle ticket). There are refreshments available, along with food, and there is always plenty to go around, along with snacks, chips, cookies, etc. As far as missing a good ball game, well, most of America has VCRs and I’m willing to bet you have one with a blank tape to go with it. It’s not just the politicians that are guest speakers or those that are invited by your political committee (Did you know you had one??), but also people representing your Health & Welfare, Pension and Vacation Fund. How many times have you wanted an answer to a question only to find an automated service on the other end? Here you have real people, with real answers and it’s sometimes a lot of fun to put one on the hot seat. As I have already said, we have Business agent reports on the local activity, but we also have representatives from the Training Center, Reps from the Tradeshows and Trustees who are in charge of your money. Not all of that information is available to you in the monthly newsletter in the “Labor Press” or “On the Level” or any other monthly publications. In fact, you might not hear of scholarships that are available to your children or of an auction, training meeting, luncheon or whatever else is available to you as a Union Member. Nor are you going to meet with old friends, long lost companions or partners that you might have had in the past and just simply lost touch with. All in all, you could give me many reasons for not going, but I in turn could give you many more for coming. Sure they can be boring and they can run long, but if you can go out the next day and get work or correct something wrong with your benefits or simply use your new tape or wear your new hat, then it is going to make you smile and make you glad that you went to your Local Union Meeting. (Ours is the second Tuesday of every month at 7 p.m. at Local 247). I hope to see you there!!
247 Vice President Willie Gore agreed to have his head shaved in order to raise money for the Regional Council charity auction. His shaved head was worth almost $1,000 to Council delegates. People even bought locks of his hair.
Remember to vote!
By Joe Baron, Political Organizer
Hopefully you know we have state and initiative elections coming up in November. In order for us to advance our causes and get people elected who will work for our jobs (by getting money for new bridges, roads, infrastructure, etc.), we all need to be registered to vote. You will be receiving voter registration forms in the mail, so please fill them out and return them as soon as possible.’
Alert member foils anti-union talk-show host
When Carpenters retiree Ervin Flick saw an ad for KXL Radio’s Lars Larson on the side of an Alpenrose Dairy milk carton, he wrote the union dairy company to complain. Larson is a right-wing talk show host with a history of bashing unions. Alpenrose promptly pulled the ad, and a company spokesperson told Flick they would destroy 1 million of the cartons. Below is a letter from the ad agency.
Local 247 continues to support Doernbecher
Local 247 will again be a sponsoer of the 2002 Holiday Card Program. We will be ordering holiday cards for door prizes at local union meetings. If anyone is interested in purchasing some cards, please contact the office or Doernbecher’s Holiday Cards at 503-294-7101.
