The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is offering two-to-four year fellowships as part of its Community Builders Program and is encouraging individuals active in the labor movement to apply.

As part of HUD's new focus on outreach and customer service, Community Builders will work out of HUD field offices in 81 cities, including Seattle, and will travel into nearby cities to serve as the agency's first point of contact.  They will be trained in all aspects of the agency and foster partnerships both inside and outside the agency.

Qualified applicants will have experience related to community and coalition building and have demonstrated an ability and willingness to solve problems.  The program has been designed to attract skilled, experienced individuals interested in helping communities grow and prosper.  Community Builders may not retain a paid position in the private or public sector during the fellowship; however HUD is encouraging companies, non-profits, labor organizations, universities and government offices to allow employees to participate by arranging sabbaticals from their current jobs.

For more information on the Community Builders program, click here or contact Jim Harrell at (206) 220-5109.

Washington State Labor Council President Rick Bender and King County Labor Council Executive Secretary Ron Judd have called an emergency meeting of all Puget Sound-area union organizations on Thursday at 2 p.m. in Hall 8 of Seattle's Labor Temple to discuss the status of Initiative 688, the campaign to raise the state's minimum wage.

All affiliated locals and councils have been asked to send at least one representative (preferably more) of their organization — an officer, staff representative or rank-and-file member.  The meeting comes right after the KCLC luncheon at the Catholic Seamen's Club just down the street.

Initiative 688, which would raise our state's minimum wage in two steps from $4.90 to $6.50 and then index that wage to the inflation rate, has reached a critical stage in the effort to collect the 225,000 signatures necessary to get it on November's ballot.   The campaign is using volunteers only to get the signatures.

For more information, please call Tarik or Robby at 206-281-8901.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, representing workers at every West Coast port from the Canadian border to Mexico, announced Monday it was boycotting Australian beef and produce as a result of that country's most divisive industrial dispute in decades.

The union has asked its 60,000 members not to buy or consume Australian agricultural goods because of efforts to break that country's dockworkers union, the Maritime Union of Australia.  Although the current strategy is limited to a consumer boycott, an ILWU spokesperson said it was possible the ILWU would refuse to handle goods from vessels loaded by scab replacement workers in Australia.

The MUA has been involved in a bitter dispute over the past 6 months with the right-wing anti-union Australian Government, one of the countries two major port operators, Patrick Stevedores, and the National Farmers Federation (the NFF). 

On April 7, the dispute escalated massively when without any warning, all dockworkers employed by Patrick (a total of over 2,000 people) were fired. Security guards with dogs were moved into the facilities to remove workers forcibly.  At the same time, non-union workers, trained over the past few weeks by the NFF in Melbourne were brought into key facilities to begin operating cargo handling equipment.

Although initiated by Patrick Stevedores Inc., a subsidiary of Lang Corporation, this move clearly has the full support and encouragement of the Australian government. Workplace Relations Minister Peter Reith issued a press statement welcoming the sackings at the same time he was officially informed of them.  The company and the government have made it clear that they have declared war on the union and that they intend to create a union-free ports industry in Australia.

Meanwhile, the NFF on Monday threatened to breach the MUA's blockade of Australian ports by driving their own trucks through picket lines unless they are allowed access to much-needed supplies.

For more information on this story, click here.

The Pacific Northwest Labor History Association's annual conference will be held in Portland, Oregon, May 15-17, 1998.  The conference, which rotates between Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, is a unique opportunity for scholars and labor and community activists to meet and discuss the rich heritage of working class solidarity in our region, and to examine how these traditions affect the struggles workers face today.  

Registration is $50; for students, retirees and unemployed, the fee is $10.  For further information, call 541-346-2785 or 503-725-3295.

Here's the agenda:

Friday, May 15

4:30-6:30 p.m. — Pre-registration, Smith Memorial Center, Portland State University
7:00-10:00  — Reception and Social Hour, Oregon Historical Society, Music by General Strike

Saturday, May 16

8:00-9:00 a.m. — Registration, Portland State University
9:00-10:30 — Introduction and Welcome, Joey Hartman, President, Pacific Northwest Labor History Ass'n; Marcus Widenor, Associate Professor, Labor Education and Research Center, University of Oregon
Plenary Session
Keynote Speaker, Dorothy Sue Cobble, Associate Professor, Rutgers University, "Lost Tradition of Organizing and the Reinvention of Unionism: Lessons from a Century of U.S. Labor History"
10:30-10:45 — Break

10:45-12:15 — Session I

Panel:  "Oregon's Longest Labor Struggle: Remembering the Oregonian and Journal Strike of 1959-64"
Bob Hulen, Portland Newspaper Guild; Gene Klare, Portland Newspaper Guild; Darrel Tarter, Multnomah Typographical Union #58; John Wykoff, Portland Newspaper Guild.  Moderator: Nellie Fox-Edwards, Former Political Education Director, Oregon AFL-CIO

Panel:  "Workers and the Environment"
Peter Knutson, Professor, Seattle Central Community College, "Fishermen and Pentacostals: Class Alliances and the Defeat of Initiative 640"
Aurian Haller, Simon Fraser University, "Labour and the Ethics of Ecology"
Michael Matthews, Portland State University, "The Hudson's Bay Company and the 'Rogues': Regional Corporate Policy Conflicts with Indigenous Society"
Moderator: Barbara Byrd, Instructor, Labor Education and Research Center, University of Oregon

Workshop:  "Popularizing Labor History in the Local Union, Schools and Community"
Bob Nightingale, Field Representative, AFT-Oregon, "Creating and Displaying a Labor History 'Time Line' "
Ed Beechert, Professor Emeritus of History, University of Hawaii and Jim Strassmaier, Oral Historian, Oregon Historical Society, "Doing Oral History"
Jim Cook, President, National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82, "Creating and Maintaining a Labor in the Schools Program"

12:15-1:30 p.m. — Lunch (on your own)

1:30-2:45 — Session II

Panel:  "African-American Workers in Portland"
Rudy Pearson, Associate Professor, American River College, "African-Americans and the Portland ILWU"
Elizabeth McLagan, Freelance Writer and Historian, Portland, "Legal Barriers to Equal Economic Opportunity in Oregon, 1844-1980"
Keith Edwards, Assistant Business Manager, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 48, "A Minority Caucus in the IBEW"
Moderator:  Bob Williams, President, Oregon Chapter, A. Philip Randolph Institute
Commentary: Bob Boyer, Former State Senator, Former President, Inland Boatmen's Union

Workshop:  "Collecting Union Memorabilia" Oregon trade unionists will display their collections of union memorabilia including buttons, banners and documents and discuss how individuals and organizations can best preserve their heritage through them.
Don Patch, Oregon Public Employees Union; Tracy Pierce, Oregon Public Employees Union; Michael Richards, United Brotherhood of Carpenters Local 1388; John Williams, United Association of Plumbers and Fitters Local 290

2:45-3:00 — Break

3:00-4:30 — Session III

Panel:  Labor and the Community
Roger Yockey, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1105, "Labor, Social Justice Movements and the Church in the Pacific Northwest
Andy Parnaby, Memorial University of Newfoundland, "On the Hook: Waterfront Work and the Rhythms of Family Life in Vancouver"
M. Diane Rogers, Simon Fraser University, "'More Working than Weeping': 1910's Attitudes Towards Women's Suffrage in Coquitlawm, B.C."
Moderator:  Laurie Mercier, Assistant Professor, Washington State University Vancouver

Panel:  Young Workers and the New Economy
Roger Crowther, Staff Representative, Canadian Autoworkers, Vancouver, B.C.
Lori Banong, CAW member, Starbucks Organizing Campaign
Erik Amos, Retail Worker, Portland
Warren Mar, Northwest Region Coordinator, Organizing Department, AFL-CIO
Moderator:  Mark Hinz, PSU Students for Unity

Workshop:  "WPA Art of the Pacific Northwest"  A display and discussion of WPA art.
Trish Kaufman, ARTSPACE, Bay City, Oregon

6:30-7:30 — Social Hour

7:30-10:00 p.m. — Banquet
Music: Jon Fromer, San Francisco labor singer and songwriter, member of American Federation of Musicians Local 1000

Presentation of PNLHA "Person of the Year Award"

Sunday, May 17

9:00-10:30 a.m. — Session IV

Panel:  "Latino Railroad Workers in the Pacific Northwest: 1890-WW II"
Erasmo Gamboa, Associate Professor, University of Washington, "Keep 'Em Rolling: Mexican Track Labor in the PNW During WWII"
Jeff Garcilazo, Assistant Professor, University of California, Irvine, "Wobblies and Traqueros: The IWW and Mexican Trackworkers in the West, 1900-1917"
Moderator: Luis Machorro, Retention Coordinator, Portland Public Schools
Commentator:  Yvonne Martinez, Jobs with Justice and AFSCME Council 75

Panel:  "Portland's Workers and Bosses in the 1934 Maritime Strike"
Michael Munk, "Portland's 'Silk Stocking Mob': the Citizens Emergency League in the 1934 Longshore Strike."
Ottilie Markholt, Independent Historian, Office and Professional Employees Union Local 28, Tacoma, "The Portland Central Labor Council During the 1934 Maritime Strike"
Moderator: Craig Wollner, Professor of Social Sciences, Fellow Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies, Portland State University

Workshop:  Labor Videos
"Good Work Sister," Sandy Polichuk
"OPEU Strike in Photographs," Bette Lee

10:30-10:45 — Break

10:45-12:15 — Session V

Panel:  Wobblies and PNW Free Speech Fights
Jay Mullen, Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Southern Oregon State College, "The 1911 IWW Walk Over the Siskyous"
John-Henry Harter, President, President, Support Staff Union, Simon Fraser University "'True to Her Class and True to Her Kind': Gender and the Industrial Workers of the World"
Terry Willis, Ph.D., Independent Scholar,"The Black Hole of Seattle': Socialist Free Speech Fights of 1906 and 1907"
Moderator:  Ross Rieder, Organizer, Snohomish County Labor Council, Everett, Washington

Workshop:  Working Class Literature of the Pacific Northwest.  A panel of regional authors will read from their writings on work and workers.  (Readers to be announced.)
Moderator: Norm Diamond, Communication Workers of America, Workers Education Local 189