By JEFF KLATKE
Council 75 President
I am proud to issue this report as President of Oregon AFSCME for October 2015. Please share this report with the members of your local.
A key to a high-functioning union is communication. This month I am pleased to highlight the Oregon AFSCME twitter account. @Oregon_AFSCME has only been in use for a short time, but it already has almost 700 followers, which is amazing. Your union uses a wide array of tools to keep its members and the community informed about its activities and we are studying all of these tools to find the one that is most effective in different situations. During the last five issues of this president’s report I have highlighted five different ways to get information: our website (http://www.oregonafscme.com/), our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/OregonAFSCME/), our “e-lert” (which you can sign up to receive here), the contact information for your elected officers (available here), and, of course, this monthly report from your elected president. We try to make sure everyone who wants to stay informed, can stay informed. If there is another communication tool that you find valuable, please let me know about it; our goal is to expand our reach with ever increasing effectiveness and efficiency.
On Nov. 21 at the Salem AFSCME office (1400 N Tandem Ave) we will have our final Board meeting of 2015. The Board will be asked to approve the 2016 budget and make some preliminary endorsements of candidates and ballot measures as recommended by our Political Action Committee. The 2016 budget will be built around the assumption that the Supreme Court will issue an adverse ruling in the case Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association sometime in the next 7-8 months. If you haven’t heard of this case, ask your staff rep about it. This case has the potential of destroying unions in the U.S. and we should all be preparing for its effects, both in our locals and in Oregon AFSCME. None of us can afford to do “business as usual” any longer. If we don’t respond appropriately to this new normal in the struggle for the middle-class that the 1% and their puppets have created, then it will be virtually guaranteed that the next generation of workers and families will have it far worse off than we do currently.
The board will also get an update of the work done by the committee tasked with recruiting a successor executive director for our retiring Ken Allen. Our guest speaker will be Isaac Schild, the managing partner of Scion Executive Search, the firm that has been engaged to assist us in this search. Things are progressing right on schedule and I am pleased with our work so far.
Our Political Action Committee has scheduled an interview for Oregon Governor candidates for Friday, Nov. 20 at the Portland AFSCME office (6025 E Burnside) at 6 p.m. Dinner will be available for those who attend. The following morning, Saturday, Nov. 21 at 9 a.m. our PAC will also interview candidates for Oregon Treasurer at the Salem AFSCME office (1400 N Tandem Ave) See our AFSCME Calendar of events for locations and start times of these candidate interviews and more. All members in good standing are welcome and encouraged to attend these candidate interviews.
As I have written to you over the last several months, AFSCME International has greatly expanded their member engagement for selecting the candidate for President of the U.S. to endorse. As you may have heard the International executive board announced on Oct. 23 that it endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. This vote and announcement came very soon after the first Democratic Party debate and the announcement by Joe Biden that he would not run for President. As also followed similar endorsement announcements by other large national unions, like the American Federation of Teachers and others, there was notable objection by AFSCME members to this endorsement, including in Oregon. I think it is important to tell you that our Oregon Vice President on the AFSCME International executive board, Ken Allen, voted against the endorsement of Clinton. Ken was one of six total votes against the endorsement. I will continue to keep you informed of additional developments in this ongoing conversation as they occur.
Oct. 22-25 was the Oregon AFL-CIO Convention. I was re-elected to the executive board and Ken Allen, our executive director, was re-elected to the executive committee. Tom Chamberlain and Barbara Byrd were re-elected as Federation President and Secretary-Treasurer. All of the resolutions submitted by Oregon AFSCME and its locals were adopted, including a notable last-minute resolution submitted on the floor of the convention regarding unions playing a role in helping find solutions to the Oregon housing crisis and using this election cycle as an opportunity to press candidates for solutions and commitments to resolving this crisis.
I plan to send a president’s report like this every month to local presidents, members of the Oregon AFSCME board, and any member who requests it and gives the Council Secretary a home email address. If you are a local president or other local officer, please share this information with the members of your local.
If you ever have any questions or wish to send me a comment, you can reach me at president@OregonAFSCME.com.
Thank you for being active in your union.
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