credits Burl A. Green, a pioneering
labor union lawyer in Portland, with
steering him into the same field. Will-
—By Gene Klare
ner was active in civil rights causes
and became the attorney for the Port-
land chapter of the National Associa-
tion for the Advancement of Colored
People, a post he held from 1954 to
1964.
Willner became active in the De-
mocratic Party and in 1956 won elec-
tion as a state representative in a
North Portland district. Although he
was a freshman legislator in the 1957
session, State Rep. Willner was ap-
pointed as chairman of a legislative
interim committee assigned to study
the problems of migrant farm work-
ers and come up with legislative solu-
tions.
THE INTERIM COMMITTEE
chaired by Willner, comprised of House and Senate
members, produced a package of proposed improve-
ments in the working, housing and health conditions of
DON S. WILLNER, a Portland attorney who repre- migrant workers, which the 1959 legislative session
sents labor unions and who compiled an exemplary pro- passed. Although Willner was defeated for re-election in
worker voting record as a Democratic member of the 1958, he continued to chair the committee until it com-
Oregon Legislature, takes the spotlight as the newest pleted its work. A Democratic activist who lobbied for
member of the Northwest Oregon Labor Retirees Coun- passage of the improvements in the lives of migrant
workers was Vera Katz of Portland, who also
cil’s Labor Hall of Fame.
picketed supermarkets in support of the Cal-
Willner, 81, still practices law but with
ifornia grape boycott initiated by Cesar
a reduced caseload. He represented Mult-
Chavez, the leader of the United Farm Work-
nomah Typographical Union No. 58,
ers Union. Katz went on to a long career in
Mailers Local 13 and Portland Newspa-
elective office, which saw her serve as
per Guild Local 165 in the bitter strike
Speaker of the Oregon House and Mayor of
against the Oregonian and Oregon Jour-
Portland. Willner later served as the attorney
nal, which began Nov. 10, 1959 and
for Cesar Chavez College in Woodburn. Will-
lasted until April 4, 1965, when the
ner returned to the Legislature by winning
unions stopped picketing the two scab-
election to the Oregon Senate in 1962. He
staffed Newhouse papers. Willner was
served for a decade as a state senator. In the
also the attorney for the strike-born Port-
1970s, Willner sought the Democratic nomi-
land Reporter, which the strikers and their
nation for U.S senator and Oregon attorney
unions started in February 1960. He
DON WILLNER
general.
wrote a column, “Oregon Today,” for the
In addition to previously mentioned labor unions,
money losing tabloid Reporter, whose presses ceased
running on Sept. 30, 1964. When the Reporter began Willner also was the attorney for a number of other labor
selling stock at $10 a share, Willner sold stock to Mrs. organizations, including Woodworkers Region 3 and
Eleanor Roosevelt, whom he had met while he was a stu- Multnomah County Employees Local 88.
HE ALSO successfully represented Americans of
dent at Harvard and active in the Democratic Party.
ANOTHER HISTORIC labor event in which Will- Japanese descent in their quest for monetary redress for
ner participated as an attorney was the formation in 1964 their internment in World War II, and he won pay equity
of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers. justice for woman faculty members at Portland State and
The Portland-based AWPPW was founded by Bill Perrin other state higher education institutions.
An accomplished tennis player, Willner is nationally
and others as a 21,000-member independent union of
West Coast papermill workers who were not satisfied ranked at 51st among those 80 or older.
DON HAS four daughters, Becky, who lives in Lon-
with the representation given them by two existing
unions. The AWPPW is now part of the United Brother- don, Sarah, in California, Anna, in Maine, and Jennifer,
hood of Carpenters. Earlier this year, Willner participated who is a lawyer in Bellingham, Washington. He has eight
in a panel on the history of the AWPPW at a conference grandchildren. Don’s wife, Marjorie Burns, an author of
in Portland of the Pacific Northwest Labor History As- non-fiction books, is secretary-treasurer of the faculty
sociation. On the panel with him was Harold E. King, a union at Portland State University.
colleague of Perrin in establishing the AWPPW. Both be-
longed to Oregon City Local 68 . King, who later lobbied
with Perrin at the Legislature in Salem on legislation ben-
efiting seniors, is the secretary-treasurer of the NW Ore-
gon Labor Retirees Council.
Willner was born on May 22, 1926 in New York City.
He served in the U.S. Army, graduated from Harvard
College in Massachusetts with a bachelor’s degree, then
attended Harvard Law School and earned a law degree.
He recalled that he passed up graduation ceremonies for
his bachelor’s diploma because he had a chance to attend
a New York Yankees baseball game when Mickey Man-
tle was one of the team’s stars. After becoming a lawyer,
Willner obtained a job with a law firm in Washington,
D.C.
HE MOVED to Portland in 1952 after checking out
the Rose City on a visit the year before. He opened a law
office downtown in the Corbett Building and also main-
tained an office in the St. Johns area of North Portland.
His partner in the downtown office was Harlow Lenon,
who was later elected a Circuit Court judge. Willner
Let me say this about that
Willner enters Hall
PAGE 18
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