Northwest labor press., October 19, 2007, Image 1

Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 6
V olume 108
Number 20
October 19, 2007
P ortland
Convention Action
Oregon AFL-CIO ramps up for aggressive Labor 2008
SEASIDE— Firefighters hate to
hear the words “back down.”
“It means a building is lost.” said
Tom Chamberlain, president of the
Oregon AFL-CIO and a member of
Portland Fire Fighters Local 43. “As a
firefighter leading the AFL-CIO, I
vow the Oregon union movement will
never back down.”
With that, more than 250 delegates
attending the 50th convention of the
state labor federation agreed to fund
Labor 2008’s political campaign with
a special one-time per capita tax as-
sessment that will generate upwards
of $300,000. They also launched the
“Unity Team” — a formation of 15
union leaders and organizers who will
coordinate large-scale multi-union or-
ganizing campaigns throughout the
state.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m
ready for a fight,” Chamberlain said.
Chamberlain and Barbara Byrd
were re-elected without opposition to
new four-year terms as president and
secretary-treasurer, respectively, of the
Oregon AFL-CIO. The secretary-
treasurer post is part-time.
A full slate of Executive Board and
Executive Committee members also
were elected or re-elected by acclama-
tion.
The national AFL-CIO has picked
Oregon as a target state in the 2008
election cycle. Its primary goal is to
help defeat Republican U.S. Sen. Gor-
don Smith.
Keynote speaker John Sweeney,
president of the national AFL-CIO,
put it simply: “Gordon Smith has got
to go now.”
Sweeney said at the national level
the AFL-CIO next year will spend a
record $53 million on political educa-
tion, registration, information and get-
out-the-vote drives. The labor federa-
tion will concentrate its efforts on 13
U.S. Senate races (including Oregon)
and more than 50 U.S. House races in
an effort to increase the pro-union ma-
jorities in both chambers.
Two Democrats vying to challenge
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An animated AFL-CIO
President Tom Chamberlain
fires up convention delegates
in Seaside. “I don’t know
about you, but I’m ready for
a fight,” he said.
Edwards tells labor he’ll be a ‘true friend’ as president
Delegates crowd around Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards following his speech at the 50th convention
of the Oregon AFL-CIO. Edwards told some 450 delegates and guests: “I want to be the president who explains to
the country how important the labor movement has been.”
SEASIDE — Presidential candi-
date John Edwards says that if he is
elected president, union workers will
have a true friend in the White House.
“I want to be the president who
goes out on the White House lawn and
says the word ‘union.’You haven’t
heard that in a while,” he told some
450 delegates and guests attending the
50th convention of the Oregon AFL-
CIO.
Edwards, whose parents were
union millworkers, says he under-
stands the interests of workers.
“I want to be the president who ex-
plains to the country how important
the labor movement has been,” he
said. “If we want to improve and
strengthen the middle class in this
country, we have to grow and
strengthen the union movement.”
Speaking minutes before Edwards,
national AFL-CIO President John
Sweeney told delegates that the for-
mer U.S. senator from North Carolina
and running mate with John Kerry in
the 2004 presidential election has
marched on more picket lines than any
other candidate in the race.
At an AFL-CIO Organizing Sum-
mit last December, Edwards received
the Paul Wellstone Award, named in
honor of the late senator from Min-
nesota. The AFL-CIO established the
award to recognize elected leaders
who take a strong stand for workers’
freedom to form unions and who fight
for social and economic justice.
“John Edwards received it for do-
ing more for labor than any other
politician,” said Stewart Acuff, direc-
tor of organizing for the national AFL-
CIO.
The national labor federation has
not endorsed a presidential candidate
for the primary election. Several inter-
national unions have made endorse-
ments, but they are all over the map.
Edwards is backed by the United
Steelworkers, the Mine Workers, and
the Carpenters Union of the Change to
Win federation.
Edwards told the convention that
he supports universal health care and
card-check recognition in union or-
ganizing drives.
“In my America, every person is
worthy of health coverage,” he said. “I
want to say to Congress and to mem-
bers of my Administration ‘If you
don’t pass universal health care by
July of 2009 — then lose your health
care.’ “
Edwards said a universal health
care insurance program would be ex-
pensive, but that it could be paid for
by ending the Bush tax cuts to those
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