Inside
Official
Meeting Notices
See
Page 6
Volume 112
Number 19
October 7, 2011
Portland, Oregon
Oregon AFL-CIO holds 52nd convention in Eugene
At a time when labor is
under attack, delegates
put aside differences to
declare ‘We are one’
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
EUGENE — “We are One” was the
rallying cry for an embattled labor
movement as 214 union delegates came
together Sept. 26-28 from all across
Oregon for the biennial convention of
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
Meeting at the Eugene Hilton Hotel
and Conference Center, delegates re-
elected the top leadership, increased
contributions to the union federation’s
political fund, and voted to support full
marriage equality.
Three Democratic candidates for
Oregon’s 1st Congressional District
vied in an hour-long debate for Oregon
AFL-CIO support, after which dele-
gates debated too, but made no en-
dorsement in the end. Delegates did ap-
prove a wide variety of policy-
resolutions, heard messages of solidar-
ity from top labor and political figures,
and singled out several individuals and
organizations for special honors.
A Q UESTION OF E NDORSEMENT
The convention’s most consequen-
tial debate was whether to make an en-
dorsement in the primary for Oregon’s
1st Congressional District. Oregon
AFL-CIO’s Committee on Political Ed-
ucation (COPE) recommended that del-
egates take up the question themselves.
Delegates applaud as Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain closes
the labor federation’s biennial convention with a message of unity. There are
spirited debates in the firehouse, said Chamberlain, a former Portland
firefighter. But when the alarm rings, they all head out to work as one.
Nearly all the convention delegates
knew one candidate — Brad Witt — as
one of labor’s own. For 14 years, Witt
was the Oregon AFL-CIO’s number
two officer. Now he’s a state represen-
tative for Clatskanie, and a union rep at
United Food and Commercial Workers
(UFCW) Local 555. Local 555 isn’t an
affiliate of the Oregon AFL-CIO, but
Witt is also a member of the Machin-
ists, which is an affiliate.
But Witt is running in a three-way
primary against two better-funded can-
didates who also have strong labor
records. Brad Avakian is Oregon’s cur-
rent commissioner of labor, in charge of
enforcing wage and hour, civil rights,
apprenticeship and prevailing wage
laws. Suzanne Bonamici, while not as
directly tied to the union movement,
nonetheless has a solid pro-labor voting
record in the Oregon Legislature.
A long line of delegates argued for
an endorsement of Witt out of recogni-
tion for his 30-year-record of service to
labor, and to show that labor stands by
its own. But Oregon AFL-CIO rules, in
the interest of labor unity, require any
endorsement to be supported by at least
two-thirds. Several motions were made,
but no proposal achieved that superma-
jority. [See Top Dems debate on Page 4
for fuller coverage of the candidates and
internal debate.]
S ETTING P OLICY AND
S TRENGTHENING THE W ARCHEST
Conventions are also where the Ore-
gon AFL-CIO sets its policies, and
some union delegations came to the
convention honor-bound to pursue res-
olutions passed within their own organ-
izations. Most of these won delegate ap-
proval, including resolutions:
• Demanding that prison-made
baked goods not be served to Oregon
school children, and encouraging all
union members to contact Bakers Lo-
cal 114 (503-256-1177) if they see
prison-made bread (delivered under the
label “First Choice”) in schools;
• Calling upon the Oregon Legisla-
ture to prohibit the export of paper
waste collected from Oregon citizens,
businesses and government agencies;
• Urging affiliates, endorsed cam-
paigns and partners in the community
to have a union label on all profession-
ally printed materials distributed for the
community;
• Supporting the Columbia River
Crossing project; and
• Proclaiming solidarity with the in-
digenous peoples who were the original
occupants of the Americas, and calling
on the national AFL-CIO to form a con-
stituency group for Native American
trade unionists.
Also passed was a “marriage equal-
ity” resolution, which declares that
equal rights for gay, lesbian and trans-
gender people is “the civil rights strug-
gle of our time.” Under the resolution,
sponsored by Oregon AFSCME, the
Oregon AFL-CIO pledges to support
legislation and/or ballot measures that
confer full marriage equality to gay, les-
bian, bisexual and transgender people,
and to oppose legislation that bans mar-
riage rights based on sexual orientation.
The resolution also declares agreement
with President Obama’s decision not to
defend in court the Defense of Marriage
Act, a 1996 law which allows states not
to recognize same-sex marriages in
other states. No delegate spoke against
the marriage equality resolution during
the floor discussion, and it passed on a
voice vote with only one delegate vot-
ing in opposition.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom
Chamberlain lauded the resolution’s
passage, saying it likely wouldn’t have
passed a few years ago. The gay civil
rights organization Basic Rights Oregon
will decide in the next two months
whether to pursue a freedom-to-marry
measure on the 2012 ballot.
A separate resolution authored by
AFSCME Green Caucus was the sub-
ject of extended debate. It would have
committed the Oregon AFL-CIO to op-
pose privatization of water resources in
Oregon, and specifically a Nestlé wa-
ter-bottling facility in Cascade Locks.
But building trades union delegates and
others objected, citing the need for jobs.
The resolution failed in a “roll call” vote
based on affiliated membership num-
bers. A separate resolution of support
for the “Renew America’s Water” cam-
paign did pass, however. That labor-en-
vironmental effort calls for $30 billion
in federal infrastructure investment to
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Boeing Machinists taking a stand for all workers
Machinists, who have a
history of militant action
since 1935, are engaged
in another struggle that
has consequences for all
workers
B Y B ARB K UCERA
EVERETT, Wash. — Dan Swank
knows Machinists are making history
as they stand up to Boeing Co. to main-
tain a standard of living that took
decades to build.
Growing up, his family often talked
about the fact they are related to John
Looney, one of the activists killed in the
“Everett Massacre,” the bloodiest battle
in the state’s labor history. Looney and
several others were shot dead as they
arrived by boat to organize a demon-
stration by the Industrial Workers of the
World, “the Wobblies,” on Nov. 5,
1916.
His grandfather, Gaynor Looney,
was “a staunch labor man” who made
fiberboard at a Tacoma plant, and his
father, Russell Swank, built B-52
bombers for the U.S. Air Force and was
active in the Machinists union at Boe-
ing.
Swank, who has worked at the giant
airplane manufacturer since 1996,
would like his children and grandchil-
dren to have the opportunity to work at
good, unionized jobs. But he and
27,000 other Machinists face a chal-
lenge to that future as Boeing seeks to
transfer production of its new 787
“Dreamliner” to South Carolina to re-
taliate against the workers for their
union activism.
The National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) has taken up their
cause, charging the company with vio-
lating the workers’ rights. At a news
conference Sept. 23, the union released
documents that clearly show Boeing’s
decision was motivated by a desire to
shed its unionized workforce.
H EART OF THE C OMMUNITY
While Washington is perhaps better
known as the home of new technology
companies like Microsoft, it is a manu-
facturing company from an older era
that in many ways defines the Puget
Sound area and provides thousands of
jobs that support families, local busi-
nesses and communities.
Boeing boasts that its assembly
plant, located 25 miles north of Seattle
in Everett, is the world’s largest build-
ing by volume. The first 747 jumbo jet
rolled off the line in 1969. The plant
still makes 747s, as well as the 767,
777 and the new 787s, the first of
which was delivered to All Nippon Air-
ways last month.
Planes are lined up nose to tail on
the production lines, each marked with
its destination — Qatar Airlines, Ko-
rean Air, Delta Airlines. Workers cross
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