Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The 503 voice. (Salem, OR) ????-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 2004)
DISTRICT 3S: District Director (2 positions available) What are your qualifications for this office? Name Barton (Bart) T. Lewis UofO Annette Woodmark Justice Union Experience: Why are you seeking this office, your goals? District Director 3 South (2002-04). Chairperson of District 3 CAPE Committee (2002-04). Completed Leadership Training, Levels 1 and 2. Chairperson of the SEIU Relationship Committee, Chairperson of the Higher Ed Bargaining Team (2000-01), District 3 South Secretary- Treasurer, member of the Statewide Finance Committee, steward, General Council Delegate, and delegate to the SEIU International Convention. Also, phone-banking and can vassing. I want to use my experience as an activist to further the mis sion of SEIU Local 503.1 believe in worker empower ment through a progressive union. It is up to us to shape the future. We can't leave it up to the wealthy, the corpora tions, or the politicians in Salem. I am a Lane County Democratic Precinct Person and do staff screening for SEIU. I was a SEIU Membership Organizing Coordinator for the 2002 Election Campaign and have since lobbied for SEIU on sev eral occasions. My past SEIU and OPEU union experience includes being a shop steward at OSAC from 2001 to 2003, the Oregon Employment Dept 1997 to 2000, and at EOH&TC 1981 to 1984. Since 1998 I was the Vice President of the Employment Dept Local representing District 5, and was also the Vice President and Acting President of my local at Eastern Oregon Hospital & Training Center from 1983 until that Facility closed. I represented District 5 as the Temporary District Director for 6 months. I have been a representative on the CAPE for Districts 3 and 5 for four years. To further exercise my duty as a member of SEIU, to remain actively involved with the gov ernance of my Union. My goals for SEIU Local 503 is to educate the membership to all the opportunities available to every SEIU member to become actively involved in the organ izing and governance of our union and the value of the SEIU organizing model. Goals for your District? 1. Increase attendance at district meetings by responding to member concerns, inviting interesting guest speakers, and scheduling valuable training. And I will work with local officers to build a meaningful relationship between the locals and the districts. 2. More 3 South representation on statewide committees. 3. Turn out more members for District Lobby Days. We need to be more politically involved if we want any kind of a future for public services. 4. Increase union visibility at public events and let everyone know we are from SEIU. To recruit active participation of more members within District 3 through development of educational formats and other opportunities available to the membership beyond the individual worksites. I would like to see more individuals in District 3 become more active ly involved so more voices will be heard. Biggest single issue/how to resolve? Other info: Funding for public services is THE biggest issue. The way to resolve it is through POLITICAL ACTIVISM. This means internal organizing around state budget issues, district lobbying, getting out the vote, and participating in the SEIU public service advertising campaign. Due to the failure of Ballot Measure 30, our next Contract Bargaining Team will be facing many of the same challenges faced in 2003. If the member ship is not ready to take strong action in the worksite including being prepared to go out on strike if necessary, the bargaining team can not be successful in bargaining a fair contract with management. Bargaining and strong worksite actions must go hand in hand; we must start preparing now by building soli darity in the workplace. DISTRICT 3S:Assistant District Director (1 position available) Name Kimberly Powell Homecare r J What are your qualifications for this office? Union Experience: I have been a part of our unions homecare campaign to give people a voice and to improve the quality of life for ourselves and co-workers. I have been a district delegate. I have been to General Council twice. and am now the Secretary/Treasurer of our local. The union has helped me express myself in ways that make a difference through trainings, field work and communications via phone and district meetings. Why are you seeking this office, your goals? I want to increase my knowl edge base and learn about the varied issues that the union encounters. My goals for SEIU are to help provide effective communication and help weed through obsticles that cloud the unions goals and growth. Goals for your District? I want to take my knowledge and use it to help in the under standing of what the union is, what the unions goals are and how we collectively can help each other better our live and those of our co-workers. Biggest single issue/how to resolve? Growth - I may not resolve it but can help in creating good communication and educate on the importance of the impact a big purple dot in the obsticles that we face Other info: I am diplomatic but not afraid or intimidated to rock the boat when need be DISTRICT 3N: District Director (7 position available) Name What are your qualifications for this office? I have been a Union member for 14 years. I am a Union Steward as well as our Sub- Local’s Chairperson. I am also the Co-Chairperson for our Sub-Local labor/management committee. On the Statewide level, I have served as the Co-Chairperson for Labor/Management for the Department of Human Services. Union Experience: I have served on a Jobs for Justice/Workers1 Rights Board which was working with newly unionized hospital employees at Good Samaritan hospital in Corvallis to settle a contract dispute. In this effort, I facilitat ed a community forum where in working conditions and experiences at the hospital were discussed. The contract was recently settled. Why are you seeking this office, your goals? As a social worker, Union activism is an important value. I have a strong sense of fairness and justice. I hope to impart these values in my work on behalf of our members. My goals for SEIU Local 503 are as follows; To educate and inspire new members to get involved with Union service work, To lis ten to members and carry information back to my Local about how their Union is serv ing their interests. Goals for your District? 1 hope to assist our Union to grow politically stronger and thereby resist Union busting activities. I feel it is important to have the voices and interests of our Union members heard by our legislature and responded to positively. Biggest single issue/how to resolve? The failure of Measure 30, job security, the 2 year pay increase freeze for DHS employees, the threat of cuts in health benefits, and the uncertainty of PERS are member concerns. However, I believe our members would say that the preservation of our health benefits would be most important. I hope to inspire, educate and empower mem bers to become Union acti- tivists. To listen to members and respond accordingly, that is my resolution. Other info: It is my hope to serve Union members in what ever capacity. I feel my social work values, ethics and experi ence will serve me best in this capacity. DISTRICT 4: District Director (2 positions available) What are your qualifications for this office? Rachel Chartier Jackson Co Kurt Allen Kessler John Sayler OIT Union Experience: Why are you seeking this office, your goals? To represent Southern Oregons members. To play a larger part in the decision making process. Promote all-inclusive participa tion, by making members aware of our common direc tion & issues even though we are different Goals for your District? To encourage more members to become politically active Keep my district informed and involved Biggest single issue/how to resolve? To regain support in the Union... to hold the line. Make it clear, we are not giving up anymore. We are here and this is where we are staying & united under one voice, one force, one message. Other info: Unete - Farm worker Advocacy Volunteer: Home for Teen mothers' MURA - Urban Renewal (Medford) Church Nursery Housing Authority I enjoy camping, hiking and fly fish ing. I am a wife and mother of 2 boys. I would be honored to represent South Oregon and our Union. Thank you. Faith in union values, progres sive, enthusiastic, experienced organized, excellent commu nication skills, good judgment, responsible I have been an active member in my commu nity for approx. 10 years in that time I have been on many boards and currently serve as an officer on 2 boards. Union steward; Local CAT member 1 st Vice President 497 CAPE Chair - Dist 4 CAPE member & delegate to the Southern Oregon Central Labor Council Former Union Steward 20 years in service industries (nursing & social work) Four years US Navy MA: Religion, Syracuse University 1996 BA: Religious Studies and Philosophy, California State Oregon's labor movement has accomplished great things recently: defeat of antiunion measure 57, passes of minimum wage measure 25, the home care workers contract. But, we have experienced great failures too: defeat of budget measures 28 & 30, step and COL freezes in the DHS contract. Our failures were not for lack of focused effort. Plenty of seed was well thrown, but it landed on too few tilled fields. Our message, well spoken, was not heard. Too few working families, even among our members, understand or identify with the labor movement, or with the unions that must lead that movement. We need to educate ourselves and then our broader communities about the role the movement has played in bettering the lives of working families and the impor tance of workers having organized representation in the economy and in the politics of our country. We need to reach out to our natural allies, not just on specific issues, but on the basis of our shared values and through our involvement in our shared communities. And we need to organize around the diver sity in our ranks, creating areas within our organization in which persons of specific ideological, ethnic or religious back grounds are encouraged to devel op and express their involvement in the terms that are most real to them. I'm not speaking against focused issue based activism. It's planted the seeds of our greatest successes. I'm saying we also need to broaden and improve our connection to working people. We need to till the field. As District Director, I will certainly work with you to be heard by those in power, but I will work particularly hard to be heard by those we wish to empower. Current District 4 Director. Served 2 years as Assistant District 4 Director prior to my election as a Director. OIT Representative on the Higher Ed Bargaining Team /official note taker for the team Younger Workers' Task Force Chair General Council Delegate Steward (previously) I have also worked diligently to be involved with many of the Locals in my jurisdiction. SEIU Representative to the Southeastern Oregon Labor Council Pro-worker Initiative Signature Gatherer LERC Summer School I am extremely dependable and commit myself to anything I take on. As current District 4 Director, I have never missed a Board meeting. It's important to me that you have represen tation at every Board meeting. I would like to see SEIU Local 503, OPEU become a more powerful and influential in Oregon. To that end, I would appreciate the opportunity to be part of the Board of Directors so that the Southern part of the state will have a voice in decisions that effect all of us. The greater the participa tion in the Union, the greater our strength. March 2004 My goals for District 4 are to continue building participation within the District. As current District Director, I have been responsible primarily for com municating with our members east of the Cascades. I hope to get Forestry, ODOT and Homecare workers more involved at the District level. I want District 4's voice to clearly be heard at the Board. The biggest single issue that the Union faces in the next two years is communicating to all our members the importance of our voting strength. Collectively we have the ability to elect pro-worker candidates and this is the most important thing we can do above all. Elected officials that share our goals will give this country back to the working people. SEIU Local 503, OPEU - STRONGER TOGETHER I regularly attend various agency meetings and on request, have even stepped in to run them occa sionally. There have also been- times when I've assisted other agencies with grievances in the absence of an organizer. PAGES
