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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 21, 2018)
PAGE 26 | December 21, 2018 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ...Machinist Larry Brown wins close AFL-CIO commission discusses ‘future of unions’ Labor leaders from across the power and providing economic our shared goals? race to lead Washington AFL-CIO country came together Dec. 17 security for millions of working ■ What structural changes should unions From Page 1 worked at the Rocketdyne space shuttle plant Canoga Park, Cali- fornia, as a NASA quality assur- ance representative after serving in the U.S. Navy from 1973 to 1977. Recruited by Boeing in 1979, he moved to Auburn, Washington, and became an ac- tive member of Machinists Dis- trict 751. He joined the staff in 1997, working first as a business representative. His daughter Cara Mattson is a union rep at Teamsters Local 117, the same union his wife Donna Brown belongs to in her job at Avis car rental. In 2017, Brown was elected to the city council in Auburn, Washington, a city of 80,000 be- tween Seattle and Tacoma. He plans to continue to serve on the city council, which meets twice a month. Incoming secretary-treasurer April Sims is the first per- son of color to be elected as a WSLC executive of- ficer. Sims has served as WSLC’s po- litical direc- April Sims tor since 2015. She comes out of the Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME Council 28, where from 2002 to 2015, she went from member to shop steward, union officer, and fi- nally legislative and political ac- tion field coordinator. Besides president and secre- tary-treasurer, affiliated unions also elected 20 vice presidents representing six geographic dis- tricts, plus eight vice presidents to represent the interests of AFL-CIO-affiliated con- stituency groups for women, LGBTQ, retired, young, Black, Latino, and Asian Pacific Amer- ican union members. In addi- tion, any affiliated international union with over 10,000 Wash- ington members that doesn’t have an elected vice president will get to appoint an at-large vice president. Together, the top two officers and all the vice presidents make up the WSLC Executive Board, which meets quarterly to set WSLC’s policies and priorities between annual conventions. WSLC’s six geographic dis- tricts at one time corresponded to Washington Congressional districts. (Today the state has 10 Congressional Districts.) For the Third District (South- west Washington), affiliated unions elected three vice presi- dents: ▪ Steven Segall of Washington Federation of State Employees (AFSCME Local 443) ▪ Shannon Walker of Machinists Woodworkers Local Lodge W536 ▪ Bob Guenther of IBEW Local 77 All offices come with four- year terms which begin Jan. 5, 2019. COMPLETE ELECTION RESULTS See the full list of officers elected by Washingon State Labor Council af- filiates at https://bit.ly/2GcJbQM in Washington, D.C., to discuss the future of unions. The ses- sion was the third phase of the national AFL-CIO’s Commis- sion on the Future of Work and Unions and focused on finding ways to grow union power and density through experimenta- tion and collaboration. The AFL-CIO Commission was created in 2017 with the goal of building bargaining people in a period of great change. The Dec. 17 meeting zeroed in on a number of key ques- tions: ■ How do unions significantly increase density? ■ What new strategies and tactics can unions employ to grow our power and influence? ■ How do unions work together to meet make to more effectively organize and represent workers in a changing workplace and economy? The commission will release its findings and recommenda- tions in 2019. Kitchen Table Economics 65%: Approval rate of labor unions among Americans ages 18-34.
