SERVING ORGANIZED LABOR IN OREGON AND SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON SINCE 1900
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
VOLUME 118, NUMBER 18
IN THIS ISSUE
WORKERS RIGHTS Burgerville workers stage one-store
strike on Labor Day. | Page 2
UFCW LOCAL 555 Members re-elect Dan Clay and Jeff
Anderson to top union posts | Page 8
Labor Day Picnic Photos p. 6-7
Meeting Notices p. 9
PORTLAND, OREGON
SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
2017 OREGON AFL-CIO
CONVENTION REPORT
Union delegates endorse Gov.
Kate Brown for reelection – and
pass resolutions on race, immi-
gration, and women’s issues.
At the Labor Day picnic, Northwest Oregon Labor Council President Jeff Anderson encouraged Jeff Merkley
to run for U.S. president. Soon after, with Merkley speaking in the background, Victor Weekes of Bakers
Local 364 held up a hastily drawn sign: “Next President of the United States — Jeff Merkley.”
Will Sen. Jeff Merkley
run for president in 2020?
As U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
waited to take the mic at the
Oaks Park Labor Day picnic,
union members roared ap-
proval at the suggestion that
he consider running for pres-
ident of the United States in
2020.
Northwest Oregon Labor
Council President Jeff Ander-
son told audience members
of several news articles sug-
gesting that Oregon’s junior
senator might make a run for
president in 2020 if there isn’t
a strong progressive in the
field.
“I would like to stoke the
fire and make that true,” An-
derson said to wide applause.
Merkley didn’t respond to
that wish on stage, but he told
the Labor Day crowd that
over the last four decades vir-
tually every penny of new in-
come has gone to the top 10
percent in America.
“How about instead of
policies for the top 10 percent
we have policies for working
America?” Merkley said.
“The wealth of the country
has gone up, up, up. Let’s
have the wealth of working
Americans go up, up, up!”
Merkley was the only
Democratic U.S. senator to
endorse Bernie Sanders’ pres-
idential bid, and he made na-
tional news when he staged a
15-hour filibuster in opposi-
tion to President Donald
Trump’s nominee for
Supreme Court — Neil Gor-
such.
On Sept. 1, Oregon’s sen-
ator authored an op-ed in a
newspaper in Iowa, which
has the nation’s earliest pres-
idential caucus.
Dan Mahr, labor liaison for
Oregon’s junior senator, says
Sen. Merkley is focused on
the 2018 mid-term elections,
where he is part of the Dem-
ocratic leadership team trying
to win back the U.S. House
and hold the line in the U.S.
Senate.
“You could tell by his
speech that he’s fired up and
ready to go to the mat for
working folks,” Mahr told the
Labor Press. “First things
first.”
BEND, Oregon — Represent-
ing unions from around Oregon,
213 delegates and 77 guests at-
tended the biennial convention
of the Oregon AFL-CIO Sept. 8-
10 at the Riverhouse on the De-
schutes convention center. Ore-
gon AFL-CIO is the statewide
federation that most of the
state’s unions belong to. At its
convention, delegates from each
union approve policy.
This time, delegates voted to
endorse Kate Brown for another
term as Oregon governor, heard
about legislative attacks on
union rights in other states, and
saluted Oregon unions, union
volunteers, and legislators who
were singled out for special hon-
ors [See Page 4.]
The convention began with a
Friday night welcome dinner at
which the Oregon AFL-CIO
distributed its scorecard for the
2017 Legislature [See Page 5]
— and lauded state legislators
Dan Rayfield, Arnie Roblan and
James Manning for their contri-
butions to workers’ rights.
On Saturday morning, Brown
entered the convention hall to a
standing ovation and addressed
delegates. Before she left the
room, a motion to endorse her
reelection campaign passed on a
near-unanimous voice vote. The
general election is 14 months
CONVENTION COVERAGE
See a Q&A with Governor Brown,
which unions got top honors, and
more on Pages 4 and 5.
away, and Brown doesn’t expect
to face a Democratic primary
challenger. Bend State Rep.
Knute Buehler is the only can-
didate seeking the Republican
nomination so far. [Just before
she entered the convention hall,
Brown sat down for a 10-minute
interview with the Labor Press,
with her labor liaison Elana
Guiney and communications di-
rector Chris Pair looking on. See
Page 5.]
On Saturday and Sunday, del-
egates passed 18 resolutions set-
ting policy, including four spon-
sored by the Coalition of Black
Trade Unionists (CBTU), which
had a robust presence at the con-
vention. Some of them:
■ Defend Medicaid Opposing a ballot
initiative that aims to overturn a new $670
million health care tax on Oregon
hospitals and insurance companies. The
tax will fund Medicaid for 350,000
Oregonians. Chief petitioner Julie Parrish
has until Oct. 5 to gather about 59,000
signatures.
■ Immigration Opposing a ballot initiative
that seeks to repeal a 1987 state law
against using state and local resources to
enforce federal immigration law
■ Celebrating LERC Saluting the
University of Oregon Labor Education and
Research Center (LERC) on the occasion of
its 40th anniversary, and urging its
Turn to Page 4