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LABOR-ENVIRONMENTAL SOLIDARITY NETWORK NEWS

Vol 1. No. 5			November 2, 1995

BOYCOTT ORGANIZERS ASK STATE TO DISQUALIFY BOISE CASCADE BID

The Siskyou Regional Education Project (SREP) is asking the State of
Oregon's purchasing division to reject Boise Cascade's bid on a
three-year contract with the state for paper and office supplies i n
view of the company's dismal environmental and labor record.  The
non-profit group believes that Boise Cascade fails to meet corporate
responsibility and responsiveness criteria that state contract ing
officers must consider when awarding public contracts.  The State is
expected to make its decision early next week.

Last year, Siskyou Regional Education Project called on Oregonians
to boycott Boise Cascade products in response to the company's
refusal to sell back forest land which was part of a Late
Successiona l Reserve under the Clinton Forest Plan.  Governor
Roberts had asked the Forest Service not to sell the land due to
potential impacts on a state funded salmon recovery project in the
area.  The agenc y, however, went forward with the sale, and Boise
Cascade logged the area despite protests from citizens and community
leaders.

But as SREP spokesperson Kelpie Wilson pointed out in her 11-1-95
letter to the Department of Administrative Services (Purchasing),
the issue goes beyond cutting old growth.   The company, according
to the Council on Economic Priorities, has one of the worst OSHA
records in the forest products industry.  Over the past seven years,
Boise Cascade has been charged with 340 "willful" OSHA violations
involving conditions that pose a threat of serious physical harm or
death to workers.  A six-month investigation of the company's
Rumsford, Maine pulp and paper mill in 1989, prompted by complaints
from the United Paperworkers Union, brought a proposal from the U.S.
Labor Department that the company be fined $1.6 million for what an
acting assistant secretary of labor referred to as "the compan y's
substantial disregard" for the safety and health of its workers.  In
Minnesota, the company's International Falls paper mill received the
largest fine - $145,554 for 1,669 health and safety viola tions -
ever levied by the Minnesota Labor and Industry Commissioner.

The company's Oregon record is also less than sparkling.  According
to Oregon OSHA records, the agency has conducted a total of
seventy-two investigations of Boise Cascade Oregon facilities since
199 0.  Citations have been issued in most those cases.

Boise's overall relations with labor remains at low ebb.  In Oregon,
the company has been hit with sexual discrimination cases stemming
from charges filed by female workers - the "Boise 8" - at the c
ompany's St. Helens mill.  Two of these cases remain in litigation. 
Elsewhere, Boise has been accused of undermining unions through the
use of non-union contractors for plant expansions, such as the
company's attempt at International Falls, Minnesota in 1990 which
sparked protests in three states by union members.

But Boise Cascade has also won special recognition for toxic
discharges.  The company's Wallula, Washington plant was found to be
the second highest dioxin polluter in the country in 1988, and third
highest in 1989.  A Council of Economic Priorities report shows that
over the past four years, Boise Cascade plants rank seventh in the
industry for toxic releases and are fourth in rank for the high est
air pollution penalities.

SREP sees the call for rejecting the Boise bid as an appropriate
response to a company that has only acted in the interest of
profits, not the general welfare of the community or the
environment.  Th e group also believes that if it is successful in
denying the State contract, Boise may be more willing to adhere to
workplace and environmental regulations, and more amenable to
working with communi ties in the future.

SREP is asking Oregonians to contact Carol Carie of the Department
of Administrative Service (Purchasing) at 503-378-4643 or Steve
Marks, Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Kitzhaber at 503-378-4863 n
o later than Monday.  For additional information about the Boise
Cascade boycott or SREP, contact Kelpie Wilson at 503-592-4459.

CHIPS (AND TAX BREAKS?) AHOY!

It seems the Portland area is being considered for a $1.5 billion
semiconductor plant even though the news came from Texas industrial
recruiters rather than state recruiters with the Economic Develop
ment Department, who were unfamiliar with the project.  German
electronics giant Siemens A.G. is considering a joint venture with
Motorola, Inc. to build a semiconductor fabrication facility by
mid-1 996.

Siemens, founded in 1847 and involved in activities as varied as
rebuilding Pakistan's railroad network, replacing India's public
telecommunications system, and converting used plutonium into
reactor fuel for Russian and western European plants, is pushing hard
to overcome more than a decade of dismal performance in the
semiconductor industry.  In 1991, Siemens' computer subsidiary, SNI,
and its semiconductor group posted combined losses of over $617
million.  Over 8,000 of the 62,000 jobs involved in Siemens'
computer and semiconductor efforts were marked for elimination to
deal with corpo rate losses.  

Since then, the company revenues have climbed and Siemens has
responded with a highly-subsidized building frenzy.  Last year, the
company selected Dresden for a new $1.42 billion chip plant, the
larg est single investment made in former East Germany since
unification.  More than DM300 million from the European Union's
Regional Fund, and the German Ministry for Research and Development,
as well as an additional 35 percent of the investment coming from the
German government and the already stressed state government of
Saxony, persuaded the transnational corporation to build in Dresden
rather t han seeking sites abroad.  An $80 million tax break offered
by the English government was used to win Siemens' commitment to a
Newcastle, England plant.

These and other plants which Siemens is planning has expanded the
company's position in the European semiconductor market.  Europe
takes about 7 percent of worldwide sales, of which nearly 4 percent
go to Siemens.

Motorola, meanwhile, has also been expanding production capacity
over the past several years at various overseas sites.  An earlier
consortium composed of Motorola, Siemans, Toshiba, and IBM had form
ed for the possible construction of a U.S.-based plant for producing
64M and 256M DRAM chips.  IBM and Toshiba went on to invest $1.2
billion in a Manassas, Virginia "fab," receiving a $48.2 million
incentive package from the state.  Motorola, however, chose to enter
into a different partnership with IBM for a West Creek, Virginia
plant, while still seeking out a suitable U.S.-based chip operati on.

With a Motorola-Siemens partnership being dangled before the hungry
eyes of economic developers, it is not unreasonable to expect the
subject of tax breaks to come up once again in Oregon.  High tech
boosters, however, may find the going more rough should efforts be
made to open public pursestrings for the two semiconductor giants. 
While local supporters see the plant-building explosion as proo f of
unending growth in the semiconductor market, even the chip makers
raking in tax breaks are tempering their rosy projections.  Shortly
after receiving its $48.2 billion tax break for its Manassas fab, IBM
stated it anticipated the boom in DRAM production would come to an
end over the next two years as new facilities came on line, and the
company would make the necessary cutbacks in its struc ture to
accomodate the anticipated decline in sales.  Earlier this week, the
Semiconductor Industry Association announced that 1996 growth rates
is expected to be 26 percent, down from the 44 percent forecasted for
1995. 

When the chip glut comes, how will local governments deal with the
fallout?

BUNN AND COOLEY:  STANDING TALL AGAINST CLEAN WATER AND AIR

Two members of Oregon's congressional delegation tried, and failed,
once again to cripple the federal agency responsible for enforcement
of the nation's environmental laws.  Rep. Jim Bunn (R-5th Dist .) and
Rep. Wes Cooley (R-2nd Dist.) voted for the third time in favor of
17 special interest riders attached to the Environmental Protection
Agency's appropriations bill.  Their efforts, however, to prevent
federal regulation of polluters came to naught due to the bolting of
63 Republicans from the party line.

As Jonathan Poisner of the Oregon Chapter Sierra Club pointed out,
the riders represented a "bonanza of special interest provisions." 
For example, one rider would exempt oil refineries from a toxic
emission standard, while another would prohibit the issuance of
regulations governing the amount of arsenic or radon allowable in
drinking water supplies.

The victory against Bunn, Cooley, and other protectors of
corporations' right to pollute, however, remains a limited one. 
Even without the riders, the EPA budget for next year has been
slashed 34 pe rcent from its 1995 level.

For additional information on the attack on the EPA, contact
Jonathan Poisner, Oregon Chapter Sierra Club at 503-238-0442.

RURAL ORGANIZING PROJECT TO KICKOFF "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" CAMPAIGN

The Rural Organizing Project (ROP), a grassroots network of over 60
local groups in small towns and rural Oregon, is holding a press
conference at 11:00 am on November 8, 1995, at the press room of t he
Oregon state capitol to announce the kickoff of their "Enough is
Enough" campaign.  The campaign is a response to small towns and
rural communities voicing their frustrations through local and sta
tewide intiatives that only serve to divide communities and
forestall constructive action.

"Democracry is not a spectator sport.  It is all of ours to protect.
 The ballot box is increasingly being used as a soap box for the
concerns of the few," stated ROP executive director, Marcy Wester
ling.  "...It's time we stop being confused by the shell game of
blame and look at the hucksters selling the false answers..."

The campaign has distributed 18,000 postcards that ask Oregonians,
as co-workers, family members, and neighbors, to "think before they
sign" onto divisive, unnecessary ballot measures.  Speakers at t he
November 8 press conference, including Joe Rivera of the Network for
Immigrant Justice, Kathleen Saadat of the Rainbow Coalition, and
Ellen Lowe of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, will also empha size
the need for constructive action and positive change rather than the
scapegoating and anti-community intent of too many of the ballot
measures filed during this and past elections.

For more information about the "Enough is Enough" campaign or about
the Rural Organizing Project, contact Marcy Westerling at
503-543-3978 or Ron Schlittler at 503-378-0411.

IS THAT OIL ON YOUR HANDS, SENATOR HATFIELD?

The recent successful move to open the Arctic National Wildlife
Refuge to oil exploration and drilling represents the culmination of
one of the most expensive campaigns on behalf of the oil industry in
recent memory.  According to a report released last month by Public
Citizen, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Sierra Club, and the
Northern Alaska Environmental Center, more than $17.5 million have
been contributed to Congressional campaigns by pro-drilling PACs
since 1989, the year of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  Current members
of the Senate have received over $5 million of this transna tional
corporate largesse. 

As the report pointed out, on the eve of this last vote, senators
voting to permit drilling received an average of $77,929 from
pro-drilling PACs, nearly four times that received by those voting
agai nst the measure.  Leaders of the arctic drilling effort,
Senators Frank Murkowski and Ted Stevens of Alaska, and Senator
Bennett Johnston of Louisiana, have received from pro-drilling PACs
since 1989 , $122,835, $90,425, and $189,000, respectively.

Oregon's Senator Mark Hatfield, who voted in favor of drilling, has
received $54,850 since 1989, and former colleague Bob Packwood,
$29,700.

Oil companies currently have access to 90 percent of the Arctic
coastline for oil exploration and drilling.  The remaining 10
percent serves as refuge to the full range of Arctic and sub-Arctic
ecosy stems, earning the name of "America's Serengeti."  The area
serves as birthing and nesting site for polar bears, migratory birds
from six continents, and more than 152,000 caribou of the Porcupine
River herd, as well as muskoxen, wolverines, and wolves.  Biologists
predict drilling in the refuge will have significant impacts on all
these populations.

Thanks to recent changes in Federal regulations, furthermore, the
opening of the refuge will not mean a signficant increase in jobs. 
While some jobs may be created during the exploration and drillin g
phase, the oil extracted from the area can now be exported to
overseas refineries where labor costs are far lower.

For additional information about the report on PAC expenditures or
the opening of ANWR, please contact Matt Freedman of Public Citizen
at 202-546-4996 or Dan Silverman of the Sierra Club at 415-923-5 526.

ANTI-SAP PROTESTS SWEEP PAPUA NEW GUINEA - COALITION CALLS FOR HELP

Thirty-five Papua New Guinean organizations, including trade unions,
indigenous groups, and women's groups, have united to oppose the
structural adjustement program (SAP) that their government is und
ertaking.  Up to 10,000 people rallied against the planned SAP
during summer protests, and three demonstrators were killed by
police.

The World Bank and the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government has
finalized a deal which commits the country to drastic economic
reforms to qualify for a $683 million dollar loan.  Reforms include
scrappi ng the minimum wage, removing price controls on basic foods,
introducing fees for health and education services, and abolishing
controls on foreign investments.  The intensity of the earlier
protests have put land law reforms which would have opened forest and
mineral resources to foreign corporations on hold.

The anti-SAP movement, now organized as the National Coalition for
Socio-Economic Justice, is promoting an alternative program that
seeks to raise needed development funds without endangering the hea
lth, education, wages, or land ownership of the Papuan people.  The
coalition is working with international groups to pressure the World
Bank to reconsider its position and renegotiate with the parti
cipation of the coalition.  The coalition is asking individuals and
organizations to contact their World Bank representative and urge
them to renegotiate the SAP after full consultation with the PNG
community-based organizations.  They also ask that letters be copied
to the PNG government.

To communicate your concerns to the U.S.'s World Bank
representative, write:

U.S. Representative 
World Bank 
1818 H Street N.W. 
Washington, D.C.  20433

The PNG government can be reached by faxing a copy of your letter
to:

Hon. Bernard Narakobi, MP
Fax:  +675-327-7753.

David A. Mazza
Copyright 1995 LESN

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