Northwest labor press., September 06, 2019, Page 3, Image 3

NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
THE UNITER
Tapped for the job at a time of crisis,
Tom Chamberlain helped reunify
Oregon’s labor movement.
By Don McIntosh
Oregon’s top labor leader is leaving of-
fice in two weeks to retire. Oregon AFL-
CIO President Tom Chamberlain, who
turned 65 in February, leaves behind a
bigger, more unified, and more politi-
cally potent state labor federation than
the one he was chosen to lead 14 years
ago. To talk about his time in the labor
movement, Chamberlain visited our
Northeast Portland office Aug. 27.
The AFL-CIO isn’t a union, but a
union of unions. It’s the federation that
most U.S. unions belong to. With orga-
nizational bodies at the national, state,
and local level, it coordinates union elec-
toral and political efforts, provides help
to affiliated unions, and tries to keep a
sprawling and diverse labor movement
unified.
With Chamberlain at the helm, the
Oregon AFL-CIO earned national ac-
claim within labor circles as a small-state
labor federation that brought about big
accomplishments.
In recent years Oregon passed laws
guaranteeing sick leave for all Oregon
workers; increasing the minimum wage;
enacting the first statewide limits on rent
increases; cracking down on abusive
scheduling practices; and establishing the
most comprehensive paid family and
medical leave program in the country.
The Oregon AFL-CIO had a hand in
each of those wins: helping elect pro-la-
bor politicians, negotiating in the gover-
nor’s office, and providing support to
campaigns by affiliates like UFCW Lo-
cal 555.
Yet the thing Chamberlain is most
proud of is a 2015 internal reorganization
that few people know about. Following
a resolution passed by the national AFL-
CIO, Oregon dissolved all but one of its
local central labor councils and re-
formed them as chapters of the state
AFL-CIO. That meant for the first time
in decades the AFL-CIO would have
paid staff to help local labor unions out-
side the Portland area.
“It really allowed us to go from being
a Portland-centric labor movement to a
statewide labor movement,” Chamber-
lain says.
With permanent staff in Bend, Eugene
and Medford, the Oregon AFL-CIO was
able to expand its electoral program:
Chamberlain says 40 percent of union
volunteer shifts during election season
are now in those areas. And those elec-
toral wins helped make the legislative
wins possible. The regional staff have
also worked to build local community al-
liances and support affiliated unions in
organizing, bargaining and strike cam-
paigns.
“My whole perspective is this,”
A STRONG VOICE FOR OREGON LABOR: Tom Chamberlain, shown above at a demonstration
against Obama’s proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, brought the Oregon AFL-CIO back from cri-
sis to become a major force.
Chamberlain said. “You are using mem- The unlikely labor leader
bers’ money, and you don’t spend a dime Chamberlain became a union member in
unless you’re building power.”
1977 when he went to work at the Portland
Another way to build
Fire Bureau at age 22 after
power is to bring more
serving in the U.S. Air
workers into unions. “My whole perspective
Force. But because he
Chamberlain led the is this: You are using
worked a second job, he
Oregon AFL-CIO to cre-
couldn’t attend meetings
ate what he thinks is the members’ money, and
of Portland Fire Fighters
first state AFL-CIO or- you don’t spend a dime
Local 43. One day he
ganizing program in the unles you’re building
walked into his engine
modern era. The initia- power.”
house at Southwest Fifth
tive began with a series
— Tom Chamberlain, and College and was
of discussions among
greeted by laughter and
Oregon AFL-CIO president ribbing from his co-work-
leaders and organizing
directors of the biggest
ers: At a union meeting he
affiliated unions about
hadn’t attended, he’d been
how they could share resources and work nominated for the union executive board.
together. With smaller affiliates, the Ore-
“I was mad, a little bit,” Chamberlain
gon AFL-CIO staff took a lead role in recalls. “I was going to go to the office to
several campaigns.
take my name off the ballot. But then [two
The federation has also leveraged its longtime executive board members] called
political clout to make it easier for work- me down to the basement and played on
ers to unionize. A state law now bars pub- my Catholic guilt and got me to agree.”
lic bodies from spending tax dollars to
Thus started a life in labor. On the Local
fight union campagns. Union-friendly 43 executive board, he became an active
city, county and Metro officials condi- member-lobbyist at the Legislature, and
tioned support for a convention center went on to be elected president of the Ore-
hotel on Hyatt’s willingness to agree to a gon State Fire Fighters Council. In 1998
union-neutrality “labor peace” agreement he became president of his Local 43. He
for the eventual hotel workers. Backers won his first re-election bid, but lost the
of a proposed major league baseball team second one, and in December 2003, he
signed a union pledge to earn labor sup- agreed to go to work as labor liaison for
port for the campaign.
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski. It lasted less
September 6, 2019 | PAGE 3
than two years.
“I hated working for the governor,”
Chamberlain recalls, “because you’ve got
to represent the governor’s position even
if that goes against your core values. And
90 percent of the time he was right on
board with what I thought was right, but
there were times when he wasn’t.”
Looking to leave the governor’s office,
Chamberlain was working with political
consultant Mark Wiener to raise money
and prepare to run for Multnomah County
Chair against incumbent Diane Linn. Then
he got a call from Tim Nesbitt, who was
then the Oregon AFL-CIO president. “We
had lunch, and he said, ‘I’m going to re-
sign, and I want you to take my job.’”
“I think it had a lot to do with me being
in the governor’s office, and I knew most
of labor. And it never hurts being a fire
fighter.”
On Nesbitt’s recommendation, in Octo-
ber 2015 the Oregon AFL-CIO board ap-
pointed Chamberlain to serve the two re-
maining years of Nesbitt’s term.
Chamberlain arrived at a time of crisis
for the AFL-CIO: SEIU, Laborers, Team-
sters, UNITE HERE, and United Food and
Commercial Workers had just dropped out
of the national AFL-CIO and formed their
own Change To Win labor federation. The
Oregon AFL-CIO went from 140,000 to
80,000 members almost overnight.
Chamberlain stepped into the job with
the energy and purposefulness of a fire
fighter arriving on the scene. Standing 6’2”
with close-cropped red hair and mustache,
he soon became a reliably fiery orator, get-
ting hearts pumping on picket lines and
union rallies. And behind the scenes, he
worked to re-establish labor unity and
build bridges to other movements.
Standing up for all workers
Meanwhile, realizing that the days when
labor could go it alone are long past,
Chamberlain made it a priority to form real
and lasting alliances with community and
civil rights groups like Causa and Unite
Oregon. He also worked to expand the
scope of what would be considered “labor”
issues, and to cast the Oregon AFL-CIO as
an advocate for all working people.
“Too often, folks think unions are just
about their members,” Chamberlain said.
“And what I’ve tried to do and what our
affiliates have allowed us to do is push be-
yond that.… When I came up in the Fire
Fighters union, it was all about ‘wages,
hours, and working conditions,’ and if you
looked at anything else, it was controver-
sial,” Chamberlain said. “But that narrow
view doesn’t encompass what workers’ is-
sues are.” Harassment in the workplace,
immigration reform, housing, all those are
workers’ issues, Chamberlain says.
The labor movement suffered another
blow in 2018 when the U.S. Supreme
Court ruled in the Janus v AFSCME case
that no public employee can be required to
Turn to Page 11