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.