Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2018)
PAGE 2 | December 21, 2018 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST EXIT INTERVIEW LABOR PRESS Questions for Washington AFL-CIO’s Jeff Johnson (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the labor 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 corporation owned by 20 unions and councils including the Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Ore- gon 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: Michael Gutwig Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Jill Lukens Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $15 per year for union members, $23 a year for all others. Send a check for that amount, indicating mailing address and union affiliation, to P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213. For 25 or more subscriptions, group rates of $11.28 a year per person are available to trade union organizations. Call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTICE: Three weeks are required for a change of address. When ordering a change, please give your old and new addresses and the name and number of your local union. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS Morales won in the end In an article in our Nov. 16 issue on the election results for labor-en- dorsed candidates and measures, we reported that former Jobs with Justice board member Eddy Morales lost narrowly to incumbent Kirk French in a race for Gresham City Council. But after the issue went to press, Morales pulled ahead of in- cumbent Kirk French and in the end won by 25 votes. Don’t forget Canada! In the article “A sister to lead the Brotherhood” in our Dec. 7 issue, we referred to Evelyn Shapiro — the newly elected leader of the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Car- penters — as the first woman to lead a regional council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. Actu- ally, she’s the first in the United States, but within the Carpenters union as a whole that trail was blazed by Deb Romero, executive secretary-treasurer of the Atlantic Canada Regional Council. Washington’s top labor leader, Jeff Johnson, 67, is retiring Jan. 4 after a 32-year career at the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC), a federation of 600 local unions with over 400,000 mem- bers. Labor Press senior staff re- porter Don McIntosh spoke with him by phone Dec. 13. You’ve been WSLC president eight years. What are you most proud of? I think what I’m most proud of is that we made deep and meaningful relationships with community. Adding those voices to union voices made us so much more powerful. …. I think this is how we build the movement to get a voice for workers in determining what our future economy looks like. Do you think Washington’s labor movement is stronger or weaker than it was 30 years ago? It’s much stronger and bigger. I mean, there was a time in Washington state history in the mid-‘50s where we actually had 55 percent of the work force organized. I really wouldn’t know what that meant on a daily basis here —in 1955 I was four years old and lived on the East Coast — but I presume it meant that we were fairly powerful. But relative to when I started in this movement in this state in 1986, we are much stronger, more powerful. We have a much stronger social and economic vision than we did before, and we have more leaders that are willing to take the risks necessary to lead a movement, and fewer leaders that are just worried about maintaining their positions in office. Is there anything you’re not going to miss about the job? The things you don’t miss are the inter-union squabbles over jurisdiction, when 90 percent of the workforce is unorganized. I’m not going to miss the squabbling about whether we are a social movement or strictly a movement about wages, hours, and working conditions. That stuff is old. I’ve been a progressive union member since the 1970s coming out of New York City. In my estimation we resolved that issue 40 years ago: We’re a social movement. That doesn’t mean we don’t care for and advocate for our own members every day of our lives. It’s just that we do it in a larger context. Your career in the labor movement began with teaching labor economics at Empire State College in the State University of New York. How did you get there? I went to college because my mother forced me to. I was working as a cabinet maker in high school. I loved the work. But I was facing an ultimatum, so I went to college. It was the late ‘60s, early ’70s. I went to college [at Georgetown University] in D.C. and got radicalized pretty quickly, trying to sort through the meaning of the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War, and that led me to the study of economics and study of political economy. Through that work and living in the inner city in D.C., I decided I needed to get a better handle on economics. And I chose to go to graduate school at the New School for Social Research in New York City. I enjoyed the studies, but I worked full time, drove a truck for a moving company. And I got more and more interested in the labor movement. Then I saw there was an opening for a position teaching labor economics at the Harry Van Arsdale Center for Labor studies, which was a really brilliant program negotiated by [IBEW leader] Van Arsdale with the State University of New York so that all IBEW Local 3’s apprentices, as they went through their formal apprenticeship program, also were required to get an associates degree in labor studies. I got to teach in that program, which catered to union members across the labor movement. Do you have any advice for other leaders in the labor movement? One, Turn to Page 14
