Inside
MEETING NOTICES
See
Page 6
Volume 109
Number 11
June 6, 2008
Portland
Retired Labor Press editor,
columnist Gene Klare dies
Gene Klare, retired editor of the Labor Press
and the longest-serving columnist in the news-
paper’s 109-year history, died May 30 from
complications following a mild heart attack. He
was 81.
Klare became the seventh editor of the then
Oregon Labor Press in October 1965. He suc-
ceeded James Goodsell, who left after 14 years
to become director of the U.S. Department of
Commerce’s regional office in Portland.
Klare retired in October 1986, but continued
his column, “Let Me Say This About That,” un-
til January 2008 — a span of more than 40 years.
The Labor Press is a non-profit
newspaper owned by 20 local unions and labor
councils under the Oregon Labor Press Publishing
Co. It was created in 1900 as the Portland Labor
Press, but has undergone three name changes since
then — the Oregon Labor Press in 1915, the Ore-
gon/Washington Labor Press in 1986, and the
Northwest Labor Press in 1987.
Klare was a veteran of the bitter Oregonian
newspaper strike, which started Nov. 10, 1959, and
ended with the paper busting its unions April 5,
1965. Klare was an investigative reporter for the
newspaper. The strike did not stop the Oregonian
and Journal from publishing, but it did take a toll on their cir-
culation. It was a subject Klare re-visited often in his “Let Me
Say This About That” column. He even wrote a 100,000-
word manuscript about a “fictional” newspaper strike.
During the labor dispute, Klare helped members of the strik-
ing unions establish the Portland Reporter, a tabloid newspaper
that began publishing in February 1960. It ceased operations
on Sept. 30, 1964. Klare worked as a reporter, advertising sales
manager, and promotions manager. In the early years of the Re-
porter he also did some freelance writing for the Labor Press.
Goodsell hired Klare full time to the Labor Press staff in
(Turn to Page 11)
It’s Democrat Jeff Merkley vs
Gordon Smith in November
State and federal candidates backed
by organized labor won big in Oregon’s
May 20 primary.
Every candidate running with the en-
dorsement of the Oregon AFL-CIO
won, including the two candidates for
whom the state federation worked hard-
est: Jeff Merkley and Michael Dem-
brow.
Merkley, who is speaker of the Ore-
gon House of Representatives, won the
Democratic nomination for U.S. Sen-
ate, and will face Republican incum-
bent Gordon Smith in November.
The national AFL-CIO has targeted
the U.S. Senate race in Oregon as one
of its top priority contests in the country.
Dembrow, an officer of American
Federation of Teachers-Oregon, out-
polled two other candidates to win the
Democratic nomination for Northeast
Portland’s House District 45. No Re-
publican filed to run for the seat, so
Dembrow’s primary win effectively
makes him the latest addition to the
Legislature’s growing labor caucus.
And John Kroger, a Lewis & Clark
Law School professor and former fed-
eral prosecutor, won the Democratic
primary race for state attorney general
with support from the AFL-CIO, the
Oregon State Building and Construc-
tion Trades Council, Service Employ-
ees International Union (SEIU), the
Oregon Education Association, locals
of the Pacific NW Regional Council of
Carpenters, and others. No candidate
from another party filed to run for attor-
ney general, so Kroger’s win means he
will be the state’s top prosecutor as of
January 2009.
Most AFL-CIO-endorsed state and
federal candidates were incumbents or
were otherwise strongly favored to win.
But labor involvement likely made the
difference in close races like the
Merkley and Dembrow contests. With
45 percent of the vote, Merkley out-
polled fellow Democrat Steve Novick
by three percentage points. Dembrow
won by 800 votes.
Much of labor’s political impact
came from outreach to union members,
and to the 65,000 members of the AFL-
CIO’s community affiliate, Working
America.
Oregon AFL-CIO spokesperson Re-
bekah Orr said the state federation
made 195,000 phone calls, some auto-
mated, others by volunteers or by a
hired call center. Union staffmembers
and volunteers from affiliated unions
also knocked on 1,200 doors, and that’s
not counting the Working America can-
vass. Five paid staff from Working
America spent three weeks going door-
to-door in Dembrow’s House district.
On the weekend before election day
the Oregon AFL-CIO, Northwest Ore-
gon Labor Council, and Oregon AF-
SCME Council 75 co-sponsored a big
get-out-the-vote (GOTV) canvass in the
Portland metropolitan area.
Then there were worksite fliers —
50,000 a week for six weeks, Orr said
— distributed at union halls and at con-
struction sites and other union work-
places by members and staff of 50 lo-
cal unions. Union leaders sent letters to
20,000 members. The Oregon AFL-
CIO sent over 80,000 pieces of direct
mail to union members in Multnomah
County and to Working America mem-
bers around the state: two mailings for
Merkley, two for Dembrow, and a union
voter guide.
A comparable effort was mounted
by SEIU, which targeted its members,
plus members of unions affiliated with
the Change to Win labor federation.
Staff and volunteers in 22 cities made
160,000 phone calls, knocked on
(Turn to Page 3)
Oregon State Rep. Jeff Merkley basks in his victory in the Democratic
primary for U.S. Senate. Next up, Republican incumbent Gordon Smith.