Labor's Grinches of 2006

I thought this was kind of an interesting idea, and we don't publish enough state union news (like Oregonian Tom Leedham's quixotic bid for Teamsters national leader). Jobs With Justice is using anti-worker ideology and practice against itself, asking holiday partygoers to vote for their Grinch of the Year on December 2, 2006 at 7:00 PM at The Peace House, 2116 NE 18th Avenue. Ten bucks gets you in and ten vote vouchers (plus a bev). Kids get in free, and if you are legitimately poor they'll cut you a break. Net proceeds will benefit Portland's chapter of Jobs With Justice. Here are your 2006 candidates, JwJ invective included:

Bob Burton, Cenveo Corporation, the “Layoff King”

On April 27th, 2006, Bob Burton’s Cenveo corporation laid off close to 100 people at Graphic Arts Center in Portland, a money-making operation. The layoff took place at a 3pm all-employees meeting first announced the previous midnight. Second shift workers reporting for twelve-hour shifts found they were instantly unemployed. Only the federal WARN act and their union contract cushioned the blow. It's time to crown the “Layoff King” Grinch of the Year!


Marty Meyers, General Manager, Three Mile Canyon Dairy

Marty supervised the anti-union campaign at Threemile and instructed staff to do the same. At the same time that management agreed to honor the neutrality agreement with the UFW, Marty sent union organizers to areas where there was no work occurring. While Marty is quite Grinch-like, his neigbors were very generous during a JwJ supported food drive in his Lake Oswego neighborhood. According to some, Marty is “basically a corporate facist who only follows orders”. Ouch!


Oregon Minuteman Civil Defense Corps

These brave souls are defending the American way of life not by fighting for health care, not by working to raise the minimum wage, and certainly not by helping to organize unions. They are out there harassing some of the most exploited and vulnerable workers in our community: day laborers. They harassed workers in Cornelius for weeks, and recently showed up at the day laborer's corner in Portland. Let's make sure they feel an appropriate welcome if they ever come back!


Providence Health & Services

Every Who down in Who-ville liked patient care and fairness a lot… but the rich Grinch and his union busters did NOT! Over 5,000 non-RN employees of Providence Health & Services in Oregon are building a union to have a voice on the job to better advocate for their patients, their community and their families. PH&S, the richest health care system in the West, has a history of fighting unionization and has hired Jackson Lewis as their "union avoidance" consultant. Employees – who have repeatedly asked PH&S to agree to fair election ground rules so they can decide for themselves, free from grinchy intimidation, whether to form a union – are now calling on the community to support their efforts for fairness.


Vanessa Sturgeon, President of TMT Development (Tom Moyer Theaters)

Vanessa should be this year's Grinch because of her dedication to undermining the wages of working people. This 28 year old rich kid got the world handed to her and wants to keep it all for herself. How does she plan to do this? By hiring workers to remodel her buildings that get paid about 40% less then they should, by filing numerous NLRB charges on the carpenters union, banning union reps from her buildings, trying to get organizers arrested, and any other tactic she can think of. She has also been known to throw stools in bars out of anger. She is greedy and evil just like the Grinch who stole Christmas…except she has no heart to make her change her ways at the end of this story.


Bruce Zagar and the Oregon School Board Association

Wherever you see three-time Grinch nominee Bruce Zagar negotiating a school district contract; Portland, Multnomah Educational School District, Sandy, Oregon Trail, or Rogue River, you are sure to see a labor dispute due to his stalling, sneaky and untrustworthy tactics. The Oregon School Board Association aids Bruce and his cohorts in developing strategies to break labor's back.