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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 1, 2015)
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | May 1 , 2015 | PAGE 3 OREGON UNION VOTER GUIDE There’s an election this month in Oregon: an off-year “special” elec- tion to decide who will hold nonpartisan board positions for com- munity colleges, school districts, educational service districts, and fire and water districts. These are low-profile races, in a low-turnout election, so union voters can really make a difference: electing can- didates who will side with working people, and passing measures that will put union members to work building infrastructure or pro- viding public services. The following candidates and measures have asked for union support, and have received the endorsement of one or more labor organizations. DON’T FORGET! Ballots were mailed out starting April 29, and must be received by county elections departments by May 19. MULTNOMAH COUNTY WASHINGTON COUNTY Multnomah Education Service District Hillsboro School District Position 6, at large: Stephen Marc Beaudoin (Portland Association of Teachers; Northwest Oregon Labor Council; MESD Education Association) Position 7, Zone 3: Siobhan Burke (Portland Association of Teachers; Northwest Oregon Labor Council; MESD Education Association, AFT-Oregon) Portland Community College Zone 3: Michael Sonnleitner (Northwest Oregon Labor Council; PCC Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals; PCC Federation of Classified Employees) Portland Public Schools Zone 1: Julie Esparza Brown (Portland Association of Teachers) Zone 2: Paul Anthony (Portland Association of Teachers) Zone 3: Bobbie Regan (Portland Association of Teachers; Northwest Oregon Labor Council; Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council) Corbett School District Position 6: Lacey Auble (Corbett Education Association) Reynolds School District Measure 26-164, Capital bond: Support (Northwest Oregon Labor Council) CLACKAMAS COUNTY North Clackamas School District Position 2: Lee Merrick (North Clackamas Education Association) Position 3: Trisha Claxton (North Clackamas Education Association; North Clackamas Chapter 71 of Oregon School Employees Association; UFCW Local 555) Position 7: Steven Schroedl (North Clackamas Education Association) City of West Linn Mayor: Thomas Frank (Northwest Oregon Labor Council; UFCW Local 555) Position 4: Kim Strelchun (Hillsboro Education Association) Position 5: Lisa Allen (Northwest Oregon Labor Council; Hillsboro Education Association) Position 7: Jaime Rodriguez (Northwest Oregon Labor Council; Hillsboro Education Association; PCC Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals) Beaverton School District Zone 3: Melissa Potter (Beaverton Education Association) Zone 6: Becky Tymchuk (Beaverton Education Association) Daniel Vazquez (Northwest Oregon Labor Council) Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue Position 4: Randy Lauer (Tualatin Valley Firefighters Union, IAFF Local 1660) Position 5: Brian Clopton (Tualatin Valley Firefighters Union, IAFF Local 1660) COLUMBIA COUNTY Port of St. Helens Position 1: Robert Keyser (Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council; Northwest Oregon Labor Council; UFCW Local 555) Position 2: Mike Avent (Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council; Northwest Oregon Labor Council; UFCW Local 555) Position 3: Colleen DeShazer (Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council; Northwest Oregon Labor Council; UFCW Local 555) Electing labor’s own Four graduates of the Oregon Labor Candidates School are on the ballot this month. With funding from 11 labor unions, Oregon Labor Candidates School was set up as a non-profit in May 2012 to train rank-and-file union members to run for all levels of public office. Since then, 60 union members have gone through the training program, 16 have run for office, and six have won election: State Rep. Rob Nosse (Oregon Nurses Association); Hillsboro City Council member Kyle Allen (Working America); Scappoose School Board member Joseph Lewis (AFSCME); Parkrose School Board member Erick Flores (Oregon Education Asso- ciation); Multnomah Education Service District board member Francisco Acosta, Jr. (Amer- ican Federation of Teachers); and Klamath Falls Community College board member Austin Folnagy (Service Employees International Union). This month, four of the school’s graduates are on the ballot. They’re all working people who are active in their unions, so if they ever have a role to play in a public fight over workers rights, they’ll know which side they’re on. Sonnleitner Jaime Rodriguez, 52, is running for Hillsboro School Board, Position 7. Rodriguez has worked since 1999 as a career specialist at Portland Com- munity College’s Rock Creek campus, helping students and unemployed workers assess their interests and skills, and advising them on a career path. He’s a member of American Federation of Teachers Local 2277 (PCC Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals) and serves as vice president of political action for both his local and for AFT-Oregon. He also represents Local 2277 as a delegate to the Northwest Oregon La- bor Council. Rodriguez ran for a different at-large position on the Hillsboro School Board in 2013, and finished second in a three-way race with 40 Rodriguez percent of the vote. Now he’s challenging one-term incumbent Wayne Clift, who ran unopposed four years ago. Rodriguez is the only Latino candidate running this year, in a district where 40 percent of students are Latino and many are speakers of Eng- lish as a second language. And with incumbent Adriana Cañas not running for re-election, he’d be the only Latino member on the seven-member school board. facebook.com/JaimeRo- driguezforSchoolBoard Siobhan Burke, 46, is one of two candidates running for an open board seat in Zone 3 of the Multnomah Educational Service District. Burke is a special education aide at Pioneer Alternative School in Portland, and serves as a work site representative with her union, Portland Federation of School Professionals (AFT Local 111). She’s also a former staff organ- izer for Chicago Jobs with Justice. She has two children in Portland Public Schools, and last year got involved with the Portland Parent Union, a group that formed to support Portland teachers as they prepared for a possible strike. Burke says there’s a lot to disagree with about MESD’s current lead- ership, including aggressive bargaining postures it’s taken toward union Burke workers, and the recent controversial firing of Brett Bigham, a 2014 teacher of the year. siobhanburkeformesd.com Susan Hardy, 70, is running for school board in Oakridge, Oregon, a town of 3,200 an hour east of Eugene. Hardy, a member of Oregon School Employees Association, retired after many years as a family advocate at Head Start of Lane County. Now she works part-time for Head Start co- ordinating a child passenger safety program, and she’s active in the OSEA retiree group, ROSE. Hardy was bothered a few years ago when the Oakridge School District contracted out its school bus operation. Now, she’s running because she loves kids and wants to make a difference. facebook.com/susanhardyforOakridge LANE COUNTY Eugene School Board Position 4: Eileen Nittler (Oregon School Employees’ Association, Eugene Chapter 1; AFSCME Local 191) Position 5: Kevin Cronin (Lane County Labor Council; Graduate Teaching Fellows AFT Local 3544; SEIU Local 503) Position 7: Mary Walston (Oregon School Employees Association, Eugene Chapter 1) Michael Sonnleitner, 65, is one of two candidates challenging the incum- bent for a position of the board of Portland Community College (PCC), representing Zone 3, which runs from Johns Landing to outer Southeast and Northeast Portland. Sonnleitner is a member of the PCC Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals (AFT Local 3922) and has taught political science at PCC for 27 years. Under state law, he’d have to quit his job at PCC if elected to its board. But he says that’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make. Sonnleitner says the current PCC board too often rubber- stamps proposals from the administration; he opposes a recently approved series of tuition increases, and wants management to tighten its belt. zone3pcc.com/ Hardy Oregon Labor Candidates School is organizing canvasses to help its graduates get elected. The next one is for Hillsboro School Board candidate Jaime Herrera at 2 p.m., Sunday, May 3, meeting at 1931 SE 55th in Hillsboro. To get involved, contact Sara Ryan at 503-957- 0306 or by email at sara@oregonlaborcandidateschool.org. And find out more about the school at oregonsvoiceonline.com/olcs/
