NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | July 15, 2016 | PAGE 7
EXIT INTERVIEW
5 questions for Oregon AFSCME’s Ken Allen
By Don McIntosh
Associate editor
One of Oregon’s best-known la-
bor leaders, Ken Allen, is retiring
July 31. Allen, 62, is executive
director of 25,000-member Ore-
gon AFSCME (the statewide
council for the American Feder-
ation of State, County, and Mu-
nicipal Employees). An Oregon
native, he began his 42-year-ca-
reer in the labor movement with
a stint at the United Farm Work-
ers in Massachusetts. In the
1970s and ’80s, he worked for
unions in Massachusetts and
Oregon, including the hospital
workers union known as 1199;
United Electrical Workers
(where he was an underground
union organizer and staff rep);
Oregon State Employees Asso-
ciation (later SEIU Local 503);
and AFSCME. He went to work
for AFSCME permanently in
1987, as a union rep, and be-
came executive director in 1995.
Under his leadership, Oregon
AFSCME added about 10,000
members. Over the years, he led
many contract negotiations for
state employees, instigated pio-
neering union organizing efforts
among family child care
providers, and helped put to-
gether the Fair Shot Coalition
that won paid sick leave and
other victories in Oregon. In re-
tirement, he’ll continue to serve
as a governor-appointed mem-
ber of the board of directors of
Oregon Health and Science Uni-
versity. I interviewed him June 6
in a temporary underground of-
fice at Oregon AFSCME head-
quarters.
How did you get started in the
labor movement? I grew up in
Salem, Oregon, so I worked
picking strawberries and beans
when I was a kid. At University
of Massachusetts Amherst, I
hooked up with the United Farm
Workers grape and lettuce boy-
cott in 1973. I had seen the con-
ditions that migrant farmwork-
ers worked under in the Salem
area, so I dropped out of college
to work full-time on the boycott.
My piece was organizing trade
union support of the boycott in
Western Massachusetts, because
I came from a union family. My
dad and grandparents were IWA
out of Coos Bay, and my dad
was AWPPW in Salem. He was
a lumber mill worker, then a pa-
per mill worker. I walked picket
lines when I was five years old
with my dad. Then AWPPW
struck when I was a teenager,
and Dad’s best friend scabbed.
It was actually a family that we
socialized with. And we never
saw that family again. He never
talked to that scab again. So
there were some life lessons.
What’s it like to become the
old guard? I first became aware
of it in 2004 when we were
challenged in the first Public
Employee Retirement System
(PERS) lawsuit. I was the old-
timer that knew about the PERS
tradeoff that happened in 1979
to 1981, when the union work-
ers traded some wage increases
for the 6 percent pickup [In lieu
of raises, the employer picked
up the required employee pen-
sion contribution.] For the old
guard, there’s a time to turn
things over to a younger group,
and people should recognize
that instead of just trying to
hang on. I probably haven’t lost
skill in negotiations, but I’ve
done some 100-hour work
weeks, and I can’t do those any
more.
What’s the biggest myth some
members of the public have
about public employees? Pub-
lic workers work just as hard as
private sector workers. It’s bull-
shit to think they don’t. I’ve rep-
resented them both in my life-
time. Public service workers are
dedicated to their work and they
work just as hard as private sec-
tor workers.
What advice do you have for
other union leaders? I think it’s
important for people at my
level, directors, to continue to be
directly involved in organizing
and first contract campaigns, be-
cause it keeps the fire in your
belly. There’s nothing more im-
portant than having that fire in
your belly, and you get that from
workers who don’t have a
union. You find out how shitty it
is, and then you do the work to
get that first contract and im-
prove their lives, and see leaders
develop. That’s what’s reward-
ing about the work.
Why do you think public em-
ployees need union represen-
tation? I think all workers need
union representation. The
wealthy and the CEOs, the cor-
porate elite, are getting greedier
and are treating workers worse
and worse. I’m not surprised by
the 15 Now movement. I think
labor’s going to be on the up-
swing so long as people are will-
ing to be creative and try to or-
ganize in different ways.
PRIDE ON THE JOB
UA Local 290’s Dallas Crone takes first at
regional steamfitter apprentice contest
local 290 steamfitter apprentice Dallas Crone prepares a 3-inch carbon steel
pipe for a saddle during regional apprenticeship contest June 22 at the A&J
training Center in Van Nuys, California. Crone won the competition, and will
represent local 290 at the national finals in Ann Arbor, Michigan in August.
Dallas Crone, a 10th-term ap-
prentice steamfitter at United
Association of Plumbers and
Fitters Local 290, captured first
place at the District 5 Regional
Apprentice Competition held
June 22-23 at A&J Training
Center in Van Nuys, California.
District 5 encompasses 12 west-
ern states, including Oregon and
Washington.
Crone, who works for J.H.
Kelley, qualified for the regional
competition by winning the
Oregon State Apprenticeship
Contest held in April at Local
290’s training center in Tualatin.
He now moves on to the na-
tional finals Aug. 13-18 in Ann
Arbor, Michigan.
The competition is comprised
of hands-on challenges that in-
clude pipe threading, pipe bend-
local 290 steamfitter apprentice
Dallas Crone gets a handshake and
bragging rights after winning a re-
gional competition in California.
ing, soldering/ brazing, fabrica-
tion, and a written test. Contest-
ants are judged on efficiency,
accuracy and final product.
In addition to steamfitting,
the apprentice competition has
categories for plumbing, weld-
ing, and HVAC/R (heating, ven-
tilation, air conditioning and re-
frigeration). Representing Local
290 in those disciplines in Van
Nuys were Oregon winners
Alex Kuenzi (HVAC/R); Kevin
Kuborn (plumbing); and Jordan
Alwert (welding).
“We have a group of appren-
tices that look very promising.
We are very proud of all of
them,” said assistant apprentice-
ship coordinator Justin May.
Local 290 currently is train-
ing 400 apprentices.
[Editor’s Note: Since the regional
competition, Crone turned out
and is now a journeyman. Under
contest rules, he is still eligible to
compete at the national finals.]