Join Jobs with Justice as we celebrate the holidays with our 13th annual . . .

The party will be combined with the PCCLC's holiday party.  Potluck dessert.  Catered appetizers by the Pierce County Labor Council.  No host bar.  Children Free.  No one turned away for lack of funds.

This year's infamous finalists are . . .

• Wal-Mart Bully - Fircrest Mayor David Viafore
  
• Irresponsible Developer Mike Cohen Construction
  
• Union-buster Tim and Gary Tomlinson Linen
  

Reasons for Wal-Mart Bully – Fircrest Mayor Viafore's Nomination:
Greedy Wal-Mart's best friend in Fircrest:  In recent years, we have all learned how grinchy Wal-Mart is, the world's largest and greediest corporation.  When a notoriously controlling local Mayor like David Viafore promotes a Wal-Mart Superstore invasion, there are no excuses.  It took Fircrest Against Wal-Mart signs plastered on every street in the West End and a massive organizing effort before Mayor Viafore backed off.  While Wal-Mart's public Fircrest campaign has now retreated, Mayor Viafore has yet to take the same initiative to rezone the "formerly" Wal-Mart coveted property. The property is still vulnerable to another Big Box run at it while Mayor Viafore initially helped zone the property to Big Box and fend off other plans such as a medical/professional complex.

Stifling free speech and the right to organize:  Under Mayor Viafore, the Fircrest town administration made access to local public gathering spaces impossible when it came to discussing Wal-Mart's plan.  It did not help thaw this chill that Mayor Viafore's many voting constituents were already scared of his retaliatory reputation.  Many residents heard stories such as when Mayor Viafore's relative barged into a publicly anti-Wal-Mart bar owner's establishment to defend Wal-Mart.  When clear opposition rose up, Mayor Viafore did not foster open democracy to question and discuss the radical changes Wal-Mart would bring to Fircrest.  Rather he led his Council-members /Hosting a town hall forum on this topic would have allowed Mayor Viafore to avoid taking a Wal-Mart position yet listen to his constituents.  

Flip flopping and hiding behind others:  The sign of an unprincipled bully is that when the tide turns, he runs behind others and pretends to switch sides.  After a honeymoon of jubilant Wal-Mart promoting, Mayor Viafore ducked behind his hired attorney's "gag order."  Meanwhile, he had his relatives publicly defend him by claiming Wal-Mart is good for working people and that the Mayor was neutral.  He hired a City Manager to promote the "boutique" Wal-Mart Superstore.  When UFCW 367's nationally-renowned lawyer briefed Mr. Viafore on his constitutional duty to engage in free speech about constituents' top issues, the Mayor rejected this without discussion.  Less publicly, Mayor Viafore told some residents that he did not respect his self-imposed gag order and that he opposed Wal-Mart, especially when he ran in a contested re-election and wanted votes. 

Reasons for Irresponsible Developer Mike Cohen Construction's Nomination:
Getting Rich on the backs of poverty-wages, immigrant workers, and taxpayers.  While making a killing on his luxury developments, Mr. Cohen has run an anti-worker and anti-union operation.  He could pay living wages and provide affordable housing if his heart grew 3 sizes bigger, as in the Grinch story.  Mr. Cohen now stands to make a killing on his Pt. Ruston development, estimated at over $1 billion in value.  He plans to build about 1000 luxury condos and homes, 100K square feet of Class A office space, a hotel, and a retail-commercial complex including grocery on this toxic waste site.   Mr. Cohen enhances his multi-million dollar Mike Cohen Construction company (MCC) pursuing taxpayer handouts.  Even factoring the federally mandated environmental clean-up costs, Mr. Cohen purchased the Asarco-Pt.Ruston property in a federally supervised bankruptcy sale (at least 6 times less than the price of downtown Tacoma land for waterfront views of the Sound, Olympics, and Mt Rainier) in which he had an inside track.  According to many Pt Ruston neighbors, Mr. Cohen is now getting a free pass on clean-up costs from Bush's EPA and the State Ecology Dept.  Within a month after a fishy Crosswater Condo sale in which he profited about 5 times over his recent investment and despite major depreciation factors, Mr. Cohen hired the City's negotiator on the deal.  Now Mr. Cohen is trying to pressure Tacoma Metro Parks to convert Pt Defiance Park's public waterfront into his privately operated event center for the next 20 years, enhancing the value of his Pt Ruston.

Nasty and Mean:  Instead of exploring common ground when approached informally and discretely, Mr. Cohen has made threats to election candidates and union leaders.  When Ruston resident Tiffany Tallman expressed concern to Mr. Cohen about exposing her 16-month-old child to Asarco dust clouds, he phoned to yell at her and called her a liar and troublemaker.  He has refused to apologize to Ms. Tallman and her family.   When community leaders formally and politely requested to meet with Mr. Cohen about his plans and community-friendly development practices, he refused to respond.  He refused after a polite letter and after several phone messages.  He refused after a personal visit by the leader delegation including a Catholic priest.  He simply refuses to set responsible standards to pay living wages, hire local residents, provide apprenticeship training, and integrate worker-affordable housing.  

Grinchy "Green" Builder:  When Mr. Cohen purchased a series of self-promoting KPLU ads as a green builder, he must not have expected his toxic practices would get into the public record.  Now the City of Tacoma and the federal EPA have a plethora of photos documenting his project creating toxic clouds of Arsenic and exposing project workers, among other environmental concerns.  Arsenic and lead are nothing to play with.  Several years ago after moving near the Asarco-Pt Ruston site, Debbie Cox could not swallow and felt her throat closing up when going to sleep.  She had regular nose bleeds and lost 3 baggies of hair.  Tacoma General doctors diagnosed arsenic and lead poisoning.  Now Mr. Cohen plans to clean-up this toxic site at the same time he conducts public commerce and sells to and houses residents at Pt Ruston.  It is clear Mr. Cohen hopes to run over longstanding federal and local plans that call for clean-up first and how much he doesn't appreciate our health and environment.  The only "green" part of Mr. Cohen's construction practices is his grinchy hue reflecting off his green money.  The next time the News Tribune blindly labels somebody "a responsible developer" watch out for toxic exposure.

Reasons for Union-buster Brothers Gary & Tim, Owners of Tomlinson Linen's Nomination:
Recently, Gary and Tim assumed the helm of this once community-friendly family business that caters to an upscale clientele.  Tomlinson Linen workers, members of Teamsters 117, are conducting an unfair labor practice strike because Gary and Tim tried to bust the union before meaningful bargaining started.  Most likely assuming they would not need to bargain with a busted union and revealing bad faith, management rushed to the table with many takeaways and half-baked proposals.  Gary and Tim also have massive real estate and investment holdings through out Western Washington.  Appropriate for the holiday season, the company owners have hired the firm of Grimm and Paine to advise them on union-busting tactics in addition to other Tomlinson practices that have become known as the top 6 reasons to win the Grinch contest:

• Gary and Tim want to take pensions away from a worker with 40 years of service and needing only 3 more years to lock in.  The brothers propose to replace the pension with an unspecified 401k plan.
• Gary and Tim are proposing to eliminate a full family healthcare plan and replace it with an unknown company plan.  If Teamsters don't achieve a new contract, the retirees, including one person with 43 years of service, may be forced to increase monthly healthcare payments from about $150 to about $700.
• When a former plant manager's father died, the manager with many years of service went on bereavement leave.  He then tried to fly back to work but couldn't get a flight and called in.  He missed a workday.  Gary and Tim fired the manager upon return.
• Gary and Tim want to eliminate drivers' guaranteed weekly pay and replace it with sales commissions over which they have minimal control.  It is clear the company is trying to pressure drivers to work 24 hours a day to integrate sales work.  Drivers already are working up to 16 hours per day and are required to work Christmas Eve just to complete route work that does not include sales work.  The day they went on strike was the first day-after-Thanksgiving ever that some drivers had not worked. 
• Gary and Tim are proposing takeaways in a majority of the articles in the union contract.  This contract has existed with minimal changes for decades.  This is a clear sign of union-busting.
• Another sign of pure union-busting is a petty Gary and Tim proposal to cut in half the number of sick time hours used for doctor and dental appointments and increase the notice of appointments by almost 5 times.