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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 3, 2017)
PAGE 2 | February 3, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS Byram new executive director of Labor’s Community Services NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. 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 mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Cheri Rice Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. 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Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6 Paula Eryn Byram is the new execu- tive director of Labor’s Com- munity Service Agency (LCSA). She succeeds Vickie Burns, who retired last month. Byram has worked part-time as LCSA’s office manager/out- reach specialist since 2012. She interviewed for the director’s job, along with three other final- ists. A hiring committee com- prised of five members of the LCSA Executive Board recom- mended Byram, and the full 16- person Executive Board con- curred. LCSA is a non-profit organi- zation that operates under the auspices of the Northwest Ore- gon Labor Council, in partner- ship with United Way of the Co- lumbia-Willamette. The agency works with an array of commu- nity-based and governmental or- ganizations throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington to provide social service programs, dislocated worker assistants, ed- ucation, information, referral services, and other needs. Byram, 42, brings real energy to the agency. She knows the ins and outs of the operation, hav- ing worked with Burns for the last five years. Two years ago, Byram created Team Labor, a program that brings union mem- Eryn Byram bers and labor allies together to volunteer for selected public service projects. The program came about as a result of LCSA’s successful Presents from Partners (PFP) toy drive and holiday party. PFP started small, but over the years has grown tremendously. Last De- cember more than 100 union members volunteered to help. “I would like to see Team La- bor grow the way Presents from Partners did,” Byram said. Her goal is to bring an army of union members and commu- nity allies together once a year to work on one big project. As an example, Byram points to last October’s one-day home re- pair event that helped six Her- itage Village mobile home park households from being evicted, in partnership with Rebuilding Together Washington County. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Byram lost her father in a car ac- cident at age 10. Her family moved to Flagstaff, Arizona when she was 13. By age 19, Byram was happily traveling solo around the country, camp- ing out of the back of her truck, stopping occasionally to work at a national park, restaurant or bar. She landed in Portland in 2000, where she met her future husband — a valet at the Hilton Portland Executive Towers. He helped her get a job at the ho- tel’s Porto Terra Tuscan Grill. It was a union job, and in 2005 Byram became a member of HERE Local 9. Byram excelled as a union member. At her first union meeting she stepped up to be a shop steward. She studied the contract, attended all the shop steward training classes, and as- sisted her co-workers when needed. If a question arose, she always had a copy of the union contract in her apron to refer to. “It was my calling,” she said. Byram got involved with the bargaining committee in July 2008. Negotiations were diffi- cult, and resulted in a boycott. Byram’s enthusiasm and skill set had caught the eye of then- business manager Karly Ed- wards, who hired Byram to or- ganize the boycott. It was so successful that the Hilton’s top brass agreed to all of the union’s demands, including wage in- creases and insurance coverage for housekeepers. “It was a worker-led cam- paign, and we boycotted the crap out of them,” Byram said. “To this day, they are the highest paid housekeepers in the state.” After the boycott, Byram re- mained with Local 9, first as an internal organizer, then as a community organizer, and fi- nally as administrative assistant. She left Local 9 and went to work part-time at LCSA in Jan- uary 2012. In that job she joined Office and Professional Em- ployees Local 11. Byram had met Burns, the executive direc- tor, at a Resource Navigator training for Local 9. LCSA of- fers the training for free to unions. The course instructs staff on how to help their mem- Turn to Page 6
