EE
R
F
Who’s On Our Side?
By Tom Chamberlain
M
ost of us know that for the
American union movement
to remain a vehicle for change, we
as a movement must change.
Great change begins with how
we define our workers’ movement.
A union movement that only repre-
sents unionized workers, or that
narrowly focuses on workplace is-
sues, is outmoded and not reflective
of the mission of an evolving work-
ers’ movement.
21st Century unionists under-
stand that our focus must be on a
new definition of workers’ issues:
education, job creation, the environ-
ment, a redistribution of wealth to
begin our way back to a strong and
vibrant middle class, comprehen-
sive immigration reform, housing,
and any other issue that impacts
workers and our families.
Our change must recognize that
workers come from all back-
grounds, races, and ethnicities. We
are Catholic and Muslim, gay and
straight, sister and brother.
We must wrestle with how we
build power beyond the traditional
boundaries of trade unionism, while
at the same time evaluate the very
structure of our unions to ensure
they are effective, accountable,
transparent, and deliver the right
services in accessible ways.
With a will for change as our
foundation, the 2013 national AFL-
CIO convention was the most sig-
nificant convention in five decades.
For the first time, educators, re-
searchers, and activists participated
in pre-convention committees draft-
ing resolutions. They then sat on the
floor of the convention where they
were able to debate and set the fu-
ture course of the American labor
movement. Delegates passed reso-
lutions that created performance
evaluations for state federations and
central labor bodies that will create
accountability and transparency,
and result in better programs.
Resolutions were passed that
welcomed every worker into the
union movement, and began the
process of developing new types of
membership to better meet the
needs of workers in a 21st century
economy.
Resolutions developed commu-
nity engagement programs and set
in motion a new, broader social
movement that speaks and advo-
cates for all workers. It was nothing
less than transformational.
Oregon was one of five states se-
lected to be reviewed under the new
performance evaluation resolution.
The team reviewing Oregon was
made up of leaders from the Na-
tional Association of Letter Carri-
ers, United Food and Commercial
Workers, IFPTE, the California La-
bor Federation, and the Chicago La-
bor Federation.
The review team spent a day in
Oregon earlier this month. They ar-
rived at the Oregon AFL-CIO office
in Southeast Portland at 8:30 a.m.
for a meeting with union leaders.
They attended our Executive Board
meeting, interviewed staff, and met
with our community partners and
central labor council leaders. They
This was supposed to be the year
the layoffs ended, says Portland Fed-
eration of School Professionals
(PFSP) president Belinda Reagan.
With the real-economy recession
winding down, state revenues were
up, and the Oregon Legislature in-
creased K-12 public school funding,
even curtailing public employee re-
tirement benefits to generate more
funds.
Yet at Portland Public Schools,
Reagan says 70 members of her sup-
port staff union received notice in
April that they were “unassigned” —
including 11 library assistants and 27
of the district’s 224 educational assis-
tants. PFSP Local 111, an affiliate of
the American Federation of Teachers
(AFT), represents 60 job classifica-
PAGE 6
tions at the district, including educa-
tional assistants, special ed para-edu-
cators, and school clerical staff.
“Everybody was talking about
how we finally have a decent budget
and everybody’s happy, so we were
shocked to get 70 members unas-
signed,” Reagan said.
Unassigned doesn’t necessarily
mean laid off, but if unassigned work-
ers don’t replace someone who’s quit-
ting or retiring, they could be laid off.
Reagan predicts about 15 layoffs, and
says members should know by mid-
July if they’re coming back in Sep-
tember.
“There should be no layoffs,” said
Gwen Sullivan, president of the Port-
land Association of Teachers (PAT).
“If anything they should be adding
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concluded the day with a 90-minute
debrief of the day’s events and
mapped out the next steps for our
state. It was almost a 12-hour day.
Team members have reviewed
strategic and campaign plans, and
analyzed the state fed’s and CLC’s
budgets to determine whether we
are really able to carry out our
strategic plan and campaign priori-
ties. They have learned about every
piece of our work.
They will report directly to AFL-
CIO President Rich Trumka on
Oregon’s programs and our per-
formance, and they are empowered
by the national AFL-CIO Executive
Board to make recommendations
on how to improve performance
and participation in our local organ-
izations.
It is a weighty process.
Our state labor federation has
used this process as an opportunity
to embrace the change set in motion
by the 2013 national resolutions.
We have the opportunity to change
our workers’ movement. It is time
for us all to step up our game. We
must invest our limited union dol-
lars in programs that build a move-
ment. We must bring in like-minded
organizations. Most importantly, we
must build power for workers. It is
time to transform our movement.
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Tom Chamberlain is president of
the Oregon AFL-CIO.
W ANTED
Layoffs at Portland Public Schools?
AFT sounds the alarm about possible
pink slips for classroom assistants
BARGAIN COUNTER
more, because they have the money to
do it.”
PAT’s new collective bargaining
agreement, ratified in February after a
near-strike, commits the district to
hire not less than 150 full-time teach-
ers, and hold the line on teacher
workload. Laying off classified sup-
port staff, Sullivan said, would add to
teacher workload.
Reagan said it rankles her and her
members to think that the district is
downsizing education assistants who
make $14.04 to $19.45 an hour at the
same time it’s hiring new high-paid
administrators — at least six by her
count — at over $100,000.
Reagan, a former library assistant
at Fernwood Middle School, said if
this year’s unassigned notices turn
into layoff notices, it would be the
eighth year in a row of cuts to the bar-
gaining unit, which currently stands
at about 1,200.
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