Roofers Local 49
defends title at Labor
Day blood drive
40 YEARS AND COUNTING
Labor’s Community Service Agency has spent the last
four decades reaching out to help those in need
Labor’s Community Service Agency
(LCSA) celebrated its 40th anniversary
last month.
A non-profit organization funded
primarily by United Way of the Colum-
bia-Willamette, LCSA operates under
the auspices of the Northwest Oregon
Labor Council and a 16-person board
of directors. The agency works with an
array of community-based and govern-
mental organizations throughout Ore-
gon and Southwest Washington to pro-
vide education, information, referral
services, and social service programs.
LCSA’s executive director is Vickie
Burns. She is the fourth person to serve
as director since the agency was
founded July 5, 1974.
From the initial meeting minutes on
record, the first LCSA “membership
meeting” was held Dec. 3, 1974, at
which time “the Chairman of the Nom-
inating Committee” recommended a
slate for the first board of directors and
its officers. The slate included: John
Wilson, president; Earl Kirkland, 1st
vice president (executive secretary of
the Columbia Pacific Building Trades
Council); Janet Baumhover, 2nd vice
president (a retired member of the
American Federation of Television and
Radio Artists); Sue Pisha, secretary
(Communications Workers of Amer-
ica); and Thomas Jack Baker, treasurer
(executive secretary-treasurer of the
then Multnomah County Labor Coun-
cil).
Wilson steered the agency through
the bureacracy, getting it registered as a
charitable corporation and trust, estab-
lishing its 501(c)3 status, filing for tax
exemption, and negotiating the first
contract with what was then United
Good Neighbors (which became United
Way in 1975.)
Wilson resigned in November of
1975. At that time he recommended the
agency’s president and its director
should be two separate positions. On
Nov. 26, 1975, a special committee of
the board recommended that Del Ricks,
then executive vice president of the
Oregon State Industrial Union Council,
become the executive director.
Ricks was officially appointed to the
post on Dec. 15, 1975.
Ricks suffered a heart attack in July
1992 and was unable to return to work.
Glenn Shuck of the Steelworkers
Union took over as interim director.
LCSA’s Executive Board appointed
him executive director in February
1993.
Shuck was introduced to LCSA in
1983 during a lengthy Steelworkers
strike at Oregon Steel Mills in Portland.
The strike ended badly, with the union
busted in 1984. The mill closed in 1985.
Vickie Burns (right), executive director of Labor’s Community Service
Agency, and Bob Tackett, executive secretary-treasurer of the Northwest
Oregon Labor Council, celebrate LCSA’s 40th anniversary at their office at
9955 SE Washington St., Suite 211, Portland.
After that happened, Shuck began
working with Labor’s Community
Service Agency on a pilot program that
Ricks had arranged with Mt. Hood
Community College to assist laid off
workers transition into new jobs. LCSA
has been contracted to provide dislo-
cated worker services ever since.
The funding has held up through
various legislation: The Job Training
Partnership Act (JTPA), Workforce In-
vestment Act (WIA), and now the new
Workforce Innovations and Opportuni-
ties Act, Burns said.
Shuck retired in June 2010 and
Burns, a member of Office and Profes-
sional Employees Local 11, was hired
to succeed him. She had been the office
manager of LCSA since 1993.
Under Burns’ leadership, LCSA ex-
tensively promotes United Way’s an-
nual fundraising campaign. She also
serves on United Way’s Campaign Cab-
inet. She revamped the agency’s Help-
ing Hands program to make it easier for
union officials to refer members in
need, and has boosted the annual Pres-
ents from Partners toy drive and distri-
bution program. She also launched a
web site and Facebook page for the
agency.
Her office manager is Eryn Byram,
also a member of Local 11.
For 40 years, United Way funding
has allowed LCSA to meet the needs of
the community through volunteer train-
ing programs, union counselor courses,
blood drives, community family dinner
nights, emergency assistance, holiday
meals, Presents From Partners, and La-
bor in the Pulpits, to name only a few.
Here’s to the next 40 years!
Union members from 21 union lo-
cals donated 56 pints of blood to the
American Red Cross at this year’s La-
bor Day picnic at Oaks Park.
The second annual Labor for Life
blood drive is sponsored by the North-
west Oregon Labor Council and La-
bor’s Community Service Agency. It is
a competition in which the labor or-
ganization whose members donate
the most units of blood get its name
put on a perpetual trophy.
Roofers Local 49, which won
bragging rights last year, success-
fully defended their title, with six
members donating blood. They
were followed closely by Mult-
nomah County Employees (AF-
SCME) Local 88, in second place,
and Teamsters Local 162 and
United Food and Commercial
Workers Local 555, tied for third.
According to Red Cross, every
two seconds someone in America
gets a blood transfusion. Five mil-
lion patients will need blood this
year. One pint of blood can save up
to three lives.
Nurses and support staff at the
Oregon Trail Chapter of the Ameri-
can Red Cross are members of Ore-
gon Nurses Association and Team-
sters Local 223.
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