Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 6
V olume 108
Number 18
September 21, 2007
P ortland
Portland Hilton
workers rally
Several hundred hotel workers
and supporters marched outside
the downtown Portland Hilton
Hotel and Executive Tower Sept.
14 to protest slow progress in
contract bargaining. Workers
wore red T-shirts printed with
“Hotel Workers Rising.” That’s
the name of a national campaign
by their union, UNITE HERE, to
increase union power in the hotel
industry. In Portland, UNITE
HERE Local 9’s contract cov-
ering the downtown Hilton
workers expired at the end of
July. Hilton pastry chef Megan
Futrell, a member of the union
bargaining team, said the two
sides haven't begun to discuss
wages. Futrell said union
priorities include a reduced
workload for the hotel’s house-
keepers, a successorship clause to
protect workers in the event the
hotel is sold, and the right of the
local union elected officials to
take extended unpaid leave from
work while serving their terms.
Currently the hotel only allows
six months.
Sweeney, Edwards will
headline AFL-CIO confab
SEASIDE — The Oregon AFL-
CIO will hold its 50th convention Sun-
day through Wednesday, Oct. 7-10, at
the Seaside Convention Center.
National AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney, Democratic presidential can-
didate John Edwards, and Oregon Gov.
Ted Kulongoski are scheduled to ad-
dress convention delegates.
Sweeney is slated to speak at 10
a.m. on the opening day, Monday, Oct.
8. Kulongoski is scheduled to appear at
4:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 10 a.m., Ed-
wards, a former U.S. senator from
North Carolina who ran for vice presi-
dent in 2006 on the John Kerry ticket,
will address delegates.
On Wednesday, delegates will elect
new officers and Executive Board
members. Both president and secre-
tary-treasurer posts are up this year.
President Tom Chamberlain is com-
pleting the term of Tim Nesbitt, who
stepped down in mid-term, and Secre-
tary-Treasurer Barbara Byrd completed
the term of Brad Witt, who was deemed
ineligible to following the departure of
United Food and Commercial Workers
to the Change to Win labor federation.
Nominations will be held at 11:45
a.m. Oct. 8.
The convention begins at 9 a.m. all
three days.
A welcome party will be held on
Sunday, Oct. 7, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.,
at the Best Western Oceanview Motel,
which also will serve as the convention
headquarters. The state labor federa-
tion’s Executive Board, General Board
and Committee on Political Education
will meet Sunday starting at 1 p.m. at
the Best Western Oceanview Motel.
After adjournment on Monday, Oct.
8, delegates will canvass sections of the
city with Working America, a commu-
nity affiliate of the national AFL-CIO
that is partnering with labor to create a
massive workers’ movement. After the
canvass, volunteers will have a barbe-
cue at Broadway Park in Seaside.
At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 9, the
popular Union Label Show will be held
at the Seaside Convention Center.
An Executive Board meeting will be
held immediately following adjourn-
ment on Oct. 10.
Delegates can register from noon to
8 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 7 at the Best
Western Oceanview Motel, and from 8
a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday and Tuesday,
Oct. 8-9, at the Convention Center.
Of the national AFL-CIO
Chavez-Thompson steps down as executive vice president
WASHINGTON, D.C. — National AFL-CIO Executive Vice
President Linda Chavez-Thompson will step down to return
home to San Antonio and be with her family, effective Sept. 21.
Chavez-Thompson, 63, is the first person to hold the office of
executive vice president and the first person of color to hold one
of the top elected offices at the AFL-CIO. She was elected in
1995 after serving in a series of leadership roles in the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and on the
AFL-CIO Executive Council.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney will ask the Executive
Council to appoint Arlene Holt-Baker to fill Chavez-Thompson’s
unexpired term (2009). Holt-Baker, also a member of AFSCME,
has served as Sweeney’s executive assistant for the past several
years. She came to the federation from California in 1995 as the
executive assistant to Chavez-Thompson.
If approved, Holt-Baker will become the first black woman to
hold a leadership position in the national AFL-CIO.
Chavez-Thompson, who joined the union movement 40 years
ago, is a second-generation American and the daughter of cotton
sharecroppers. She says she hopes she has been able to raise the
National AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-
Thompson, who resigned as of Sept. 21, was a familiar face in
Oregon. Here she talks to union members at the 2005 Labor
Day picnic at Oaks Park in Portland.
voice of those who often are unheard or left behind.
Chavez-Thompson traveled extensively throughout the coun-
try speaking to union and community groups. She has worked
tirelessly to strengthen state and local labor movements and has
served as a strong voice on behalf of civil rights, human rights
and women’s rights. She also has been a national leader on the is-
sue of immigration and immigrant workers’ rights.
“For millions, she was the face of the AFL-CIO’s new union
movement,” said President John Sweeney. “Linda has broken new
pathways for the labor movement. Countless working women and
men, not only in the United States but throughout the Western
Hemisphere, have a better life because of all she’s contributed.”
Chavez-Thompson will continue to chair the AFL-CIO Immi-
gration Committee and serve as head of the Inter-American Re-
gional Organization of Workers, the International Trade Union
Confederation’s regional organization for the Americas. She also
will serve as an adviser to state federations and labor councils.
Under the AFL-CIO Constitution, she will become the AFL-
CIO’s first executive vice president emerita.