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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2013)
New leadership at AFSCME #88 AFSCME Local 88 installed new top officers Nov. 20. Deirdre Mahoney- Clark, a budget analyst for Multnomah County, replaced Michael Hanna as Lo- cal 88 president. And senior IT special- ist Jason Heilbrun replaced Mahoney- Clark as vice president. Both ran unopposed. Local 88 represents 3,000 workers at Multnomah County and three nonprof- its — Transition Projects, Central City Concern and American Friends Service Committee. Early priorities for Mahoney-Clark and Heilbrun will be dictated by the cal- endar: • The union will need to decide whether and who to endorse for Mult- nomah County chair and Multnomah County Board of Commissioners in the May 20, 2014, primary. The union has already endorsed Loretta Smith for re- election, as well as sheriff Dan Staton and county auditor Steve March. In Lo- cal 88, the vice president also chairs the political action committee. Heilbrun said Local 88 expects to make endorse- ments in January and February. • Local 88 will also be renegotiating the three-year contract covering Mult- nomah County employees, which ex- pires June 30, 2014. In contract bar- gaining, Mahoney-Clark said keeping affordable health care is members’ Number 1 priority. The county is evalu- ating whether it makes more sense to join a statewide insurance pool or to re- main self-insured. Mahoney-Clark, 54, says she didn’t know about unions when she went to work at Multnomah County in 1996. Mahoney-Clark was born in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up in Milwaukie, Oregon. Her father, a U.S. Air Force veteran, worked for the Oregon Em- ployment Department, and always en- couraged her to seek jobs that weren’t traditional for women. She worked in construction pouring cement, as a land- scaper and treeplanter, at shops fabri- cating items out of plywood and acrylic, and at a Lake Oswego hardware store. Over the years, she learned to stick up for herself at work. At the county, she learned to stick up for others. Unafraid to question man- agers, she was approached several times to become a steward. But though she poked her head into a few union meet- ings when union dues were raised, Ma- honey-Clark didn’t get charged up about the union until she attended a Lo- cal 88 holiday party and met other members who were engaged. She cites the 2005 election of Local 88 president Becky Steward as her personal turning point; Steward recruited her to become more active, and Mahoney-Clark went on to serve as chief steward, Executive Board member and vice president. “I’m a person who believes in speak- ing up when I see something that I don’t feel is right,” Mahoney-Clark told the Labor Press. “I don’t believe there should be fear in the workplace. I be- lieve the union can help people see the power they have.” Now, as president, she’ll lead Ore- gon AFSCME’s second-largest local. Besides contract bargaining and the County election, Mahoney-Clark plans to help pass an Oregon ballot initiative legalizing same-sex marriage, and will work to oppose an anti-union ballot ini- tiative aimed at public employees. She’s also a supporter of Health Care for All Oregon, a coalition pushing for the cre- ation of a universal health care system in Oregon; Local 88 is one of eight AF- SCME locals and more than 20 unions that are members of the coalition. “I want to make a difference in what goes on in our county, state, and coun- try,” Mahoney-Clark said. “The main reason I’m an activist is because I’m a patriot. I believe a strong working class makes America great.” On the whole in recent years, Local 88 has enjoyed a fairly positive rela- tionship with the county as an em- ployer. Hanna, the outgoing president, describes the relationship as collabora- Newly-installed AFSCME Local 88 officers Deirdre Mahoney-Clark, president, and Jason Heilbrun, vice president. tive and focused on problem-solving. Local 88 has partnered with the county on issues like controlling health care costs. Hanna, 42, is one of the founders of AFSCME’s Next Wave program, which encourages young members to get in- volved and has been copied nationally by the union. “I wanted to walk my talk,” Hanna said, “to step down and let others step up.” Thus Hanna chose not to seek re- election, and returned full-time to his job maintaining county databases — from the library catalog to jail records and animal control. During his two two-year terms, Hanna helped bargain a new three-year contract in 2011, and helped pass a stand-alone library funding district that will ensure budget stability for the Multnomah County Library. Hanna, a database administrator for the County, also helped modernize AF- SCME. He saw to it that Local 88 con- tracts dating back to 1968 were scanned and digitized, and began digitizing union meeting minutes starting in 1930. He also hired programmers to write a smart phone app for Oregon AFSCME. And he led a county task force that crafted a policy under which employees could opt for alternatives to the tradi- tional 9 to 5 schedule. The policy will get a test-run from January to June 2014. Hanna will remain active in the union, and will continue to serve as chief steward and as a member of the county’s employee benefits advisory team. He’ll also serve through April 2015 as first vice president of Oregon AFSCME. And he’ll serve on the Local 88 Executive Board. Heilbrun, 44, served two years on the Local 88 Executive Board before running for vice president. He worked for more than two decades doing IT for companies like Nationwide Insurance and Nike, but says he really found his home in public sector work when he went to work for the County in 2009. Aside from political work, he wants to improve AFSCME’s use of social me- dia to help members get more engaged. Local 88 elected other officers be- sides president and vice president: Jeanne Ramsten, treasurer; Korie Er- ickson, secretary; Nellie Stearns, trustee; and Executive Board members Gregory Franklyn (Transition Projects Inc.), John Talbott (Central City Con- cern), Madolyn Frazier, Andres Avila, Matt Davis, Diana Grob, and Julia Por- ras (Public Safety Sector), and Michael Hanna, Kristin Wray, Tom Newsom, and Bruce Jenks (General Government and Library Sector). Trustee has a three- year term; all others are two-year terms. Local 88 will hold a holiday party Dec. 18 from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at Oregon AFSCME’s Portland of- fice. (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 at Portland, Oregon as a voice of the labor movement. 4275 NE Halsey St., P.O. Box 13150, Portland, Ore. 97213 Telephone: (503) 288-3311 Editor: Michael Gutwig Staff: Don McIntosh, Cheri Rice Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non- profit corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore- gon and SW Washington. Subscriptions $13.75 per year for union members. Group rates available to trade union organizations. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS, P.O. BOX 13150, PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 DECEMBER 6, 2013 NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS PAGE 5
