Meeting Notices

General membership
General membership meets the second Tuesday, March 9, at 6 p.m. at the Carpenters Hall, 2215 N. Lombard, Portland.

Retirees
Retirees meet for lunch the second Monday, March 8, at 11 a.m. at Izzy's Pizza, 1307 NE 102nd Ave., Portland (down the street from Mall 205).

Executive Board
Executive Board meets the fourth Tuesday, March 23, at 6:30 p.m. at the Carpenters Hall, 2215 N. Lombard, Portland.

Oregon Fair Trade Campaign

Jobs. Now. Over 200 Carpenters members attend a Feb.10 rally in Salem to pressure politicians for more money for construction jobs.

Monthly report: Legislative update

Congressman Schrader

In early February, Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) signed onto a letter encouraging President Obama to “push forward on critical pending bilateral and multilateral agreements” i.e., the Bush-negotiated NAFTA-style free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and Korea, and the “Doha Round” of proposals for expanding the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Oregon Fair Trade Campaign (ORFTC) sent a letter to Schrader expressing our concerns, and leaders of many member organizations also made phone calls. Shrader’s staff reportedly said we are reading too much into the letter, and that supporters of the TRADE Act are “anti-trade.”

ORFTC requested a meeting with Schrader for March 1 in Washington, D.C., to discuss these issues and again urge the Congressman to cosponsor the TRADE Act. The majority of House Democrats have already cosponsored the bill, including each of the chairs of the three committees on which Schrader serves.

LEADERSHIP ACTION: Please call  Schrader (or his Chief of Staff Paul Gage) at 202-225-5711 to register disappointment at his signing a letter urging the President to support business-as-usual trade agreements, and to urge the Congressman once again to cosponsor the TRADE Act.

MEMBERSHIP ACTION: ORFTC has been “signing up” organizations to generate calls into Congressman Schrader’s office in support of the TRADE Act during their general meetings and at other events. We provide a call-in script and other background materials to groups that volunteer. Please contact us at 503- 736-9777 or orftc@citizenstrade.org to sign up to generate calls at your next meeting.

Senator Wyden

In mid-February, ORFTC delivered 750 hand-written constituent letters and signatures to Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) urging him to support the TRADE Act  one for each 100 Oregon families whose livelihoods have been destroyed by offshoring. Over 100 people joined us at delivery events at the Senator’s offices in Medford, Eugene and Portland. The events attracted television, print and radio news coverage.

Senator Wyden plays a special role in determining the future of U.S. trade policy as Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on International Trade. ORFTC had an hour meeting scheduled with the Senator’s committee staff-person in Washington, D.C., on March 1.

Trans-Pacific Partnership

In late January, ORFTC submitted official public comments to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership — a regional trade agreement currently being negotiated between the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Peru and Chile, with aspirations of spreading to the entire Pacific Rim.

While expressing concerns about rewarding human rights violators in Vietnam and Brunei with special trading relationships, we encouraged the USTR to use the negotiations as an opportunity to correct problems in existing agreements with some of those nations and to advance President Obama’s campaign promises regarding necessary trade policy reforms. A copy of ORFTC’s comments is available online at: http://citizenstrade.org/orftc-release012510.php

Special called meeting notices for March and April meeting

 Please note correction: The original letter was sent out with the incorrect meeting date. The correct meeting date is March 9, 2010, not March 8, 2010. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused!!

 Please accept this notice to attend a special called meeting on Tuesday March 9, 2010. We will be nominating four delegates and two alternates to attend the 40th General Convention of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, which will be held at Paris- Bally’s Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada. The convention will convene Monday Aug. 16, 2010, at 10 a.m. and will continue in session from day to day until all business coming before the convention has been completed.

In addition, this notice also includes an invitation to a special called meeting on Tuesday, April 13, 2010, for the election of the candidates that are nominated at the March special called meeting.

The election of candidates will be conducted as follows: The four candidates who receive the most votes will be elected delegates to the General Convention. The two candidates who receive the fifth and sixth most votes will automatically be elected alternates to the General Convention. Should there be a tie between the sixth and seventh top vote getters, the tie shall be broken by either a run-off secret ballot election or standing public vote (whichever the majority of the body votes to conduct), either of which will take place April 13, 2010. Should only six members be nominated at the March 9, 2010 meeting, the election will still take place April 13, 2010. Should less than six members be nominated, the remainder of the positions shall be appointed by the president following the election.

The special called meetings will be held in conjunction with the regular membership meetings at Carpenters Local 247 in the Upper Hall. Meetings will begin at 6 p.m.

This will be your only notice to attend these special called meetings. Please mark your calendars for these important dates.

Grand Prize: a 2010 Harley!

Unions for Kids raffle tickets on sale, $10 each

Unions for Kids is alive, well and kicking off our 2010 fundraising efforts to benefit the kids at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. Our raffle bike this year is a 2010 Harley-Davidson Heritage Softail Classic, color a beautiful Red Hot Sunglo. Retail value is $18,804. We are selling a maximum of 4,000 tickets at $10 each. Stop by the Local 247 office to pick up tickets! For more information, check out: www.unionsforkids.org.

Third international conference of Sisters in the Brotherhood

The Third International UBC Sisters in the Brotherhood Conference will be held Thursday, June 17 through Sunday, June 20 at the UBC International Training Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Joann Williams of the Missouri Council and Liz Skidmore of the New England Regional Council will be co-chairs.

Mary Ellen Renz of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters has been appointed to the Conference Steering Committee. She has set up an e-mail dedicated to correspondence between rank-and-file members and the Steering Committee: merenzsib@gmail.com.

Please feel welcome to send in what topics you wish to see covered, what you want to know, see, hear, do, any ideas, as well as any questions you have for the Committee.

All Sisters in the Brotherhood everywhere are encouraged to go to their local meetings and put a motion on the floor requesting their locals to sponsor as many as they can. All are encouraged to send letters to their locals, regional councils, training centers and employers stating they wish to attend and why, requesting sponsorship.

Work is scarce and money is tight. All fully employed Sisters are encouraged to save up for the next five months to pay all or part of their way, or consider donating to the hardship fund that will be set up to help those who wish to attend that can not get sponsored. All Sisters are welcome to put in requests to vendors of the construction industry for donations of products to be used as prizes at the raffle.

The banquet hall at the training center will hold 800. Please pass this message to any and all UBC Sisters any and everywhere, as soon as possible.

Sisters in the Brotherhood Facebook Group http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=27979249830&ref=ts