Oregon labor briefs

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.pww.org/article/view/11882/

PORTLAND, Ore. — The workers at Rosemont School for Girls here voted Oct. 10 to join SEIU Local 503 by a vote of 37-8. This was a hard-fought NLRB-sponsored election campaign, with lots of anti-union literature, unfair labor practices by management, captive audience meetings, and the termination of a union supporter.

The Rosemont School, a center for young female offenders, did everything to block the unionization effort, up to and including the hiring of union-busting lawyers. The workers, however, hung together and stayed focused on their vision of a better Rosemont School for both themselves and the school’s students and families.

This win came while the Oregon AFL-CIO was in a session that will be remembered for the applause given to John Edwards when he pledged that there will be no scabs if he is elected president.

Alice Dale, now executive director of Local 49 of the Service Employees International Union, is likely to gain labor support in her run for attorney general of Oregon. Her candidacy gives Oregonians an opportunity to vote for a labor leader who has been deeply involved in reforming the workers’ compensation system, fighting for living wages and keeping the public employees retirement system intact.

Oregon construction workers recently saw passage of a new prevailing wage law on controversial public-private partnership construction jobs. The Oregon building trades unions have also blocked several legislative bills that would have weakened safety standards. These victories come as construction worker deaths on the job reach into the double digits for the first time since 1997.

Jose Cobian, a Carpenters’ union organizer active in Oregon, has been deported to Mexico after a long legal battle. While his deportation case moved through the courts he and his family survived through donations received from union co-workers. Turning the tide on ending construction site fatalities will depend on an aggressive union organizing and legislative strategy and organizing among Oregon’s growing number of Spanish-speaking construction workers, say many union building trades workers.

FULL story at link.