O'Connor sworn in as leader of NW Oregon Labor Council

PORTLAND, OR -- Judy O'Connor is settling into her new job as executive secretary-treasurer of the Portland-based Northwest Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

The transition hasn't been all that difficult for O'Connor because, after all, she has been the office manager for nearly 16 years, working for Lon Imel and Ron Fortune. She was elected to fill out the remainder of Fortune's term, which expires next year.

Now, however, instead of answering phones and mailing letters, she's taking the calls and leading the charge for 100 local union affiliates that represent some 56,000 members in Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington and Columbia counties.

She is the first woman to hold the full-time position (the only full-time post among the 13 central labor councils in Oregon).

Meanwhile, in Springfield, Pat Riggs-Henson is the new executive secretary-treasurer of the Lane County Labor Council, which represents 42 local unions and 13,000 union members. Although hers is not a full-time job -- Riggs-Henson expects to put in about 25 hours a week on top of her regular job as a project coordinator and employee specialist for the Lane County Southern Willamette Private Industry Council.

Riggs-Henson is a member of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Eugene Local 2831, and O'Connor is a member of Office and Professional Employees Local 11.

The two newest council leaders in Oregon are both mothers and grandmothers. But each evolved into her position of leadership following a vastly different path.

Born in Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada, O'Connor was raised in Kalispell, Mont. She knew little about unions until she was hired for the council's office staff by Imel in 1982.

In high school she was a member of the Young Americans For Freedom, which promotes conservative values among high school and college students, and her family was involved with the conservative John Birch Society.

She came to Portland looking for work in 1970 with her former husband and two young children.

It was in the Rose City that she met Gloria Schiewe, then political coordinator of the labor council, at a square dance club, which led to her being hired in the office.

Once there she devoured her new-found knowledge of the union movement. "As a working person, it was an awakening for me," she said. "I really started seeing things in a different light. It really was the best thing that ever happened to me in my work career."

O'Connor quickly became involved in Local 11, serving on its Executive Board and representing union secretaries in collective bargaining and as shop steward and pension fund trustee.

She graduated from Labor's Community Service Agency's Union Counselor's Course, volunteered for phone banks for political candidates, coordinated the council's Speakers in the Schools program, testified at the Oregon Legislature for better job safety and was elected chair of the IBEW and United Workers Federal Credit Union.

Riggs-Henson remembers her childhood in Minnesota and the hardship of several strikes that her father was involved in working in the open-pit mines there.

"I remember the strikes as a most intense, but most loving time in our family" she said. Riggs-Henson moved to Springfield 23 years ago. She, too, became active in union affairs, holding all offices in AFSCME Local 2831. She is currently the second vice president. In addition to that, she is chair of the Public Employees Retirement Board, has served on the Lane Community College Board since 1989 and the Lane Council of Government Board since 1997.

At PIC, Riggs-Henson specializes in helping workers over 55 who have been downsized, dislocated or need job retraining. Many clients are retirees who, after losing a spouse, discover they don't have a death benefit or that pension benefits decrease and they don't have enough money to live on. She said many senior citizens depend solely on Social Security to survive.

She is very excited about her new role with the labor council and couldn't wait to get started. Last month delegates threw a party for her predecessor, Frank Jackson, and since then she has been spending weekends computerizing the office.

Next she will meet with various community groups such as the Eugene-Springfield Solidarity Network to discuss common issues, with emphasis on the Lane County Organizing Project, a program in which local unions work together organizing various workplaces.

"I want to put these community groups on the labor council's agenda. Everything is in place, we just need to utilize it all in order to raise overall community awareness," she said.

In Portland, O'Connor, too, says she plans to be very visible in community affairs and at city and county commission meetings.

O'Connor and her husband, Tony, live in the Centennial District of east Multnomah County. She has two grown children who live in Portland and Hillsboro.

Riggs-Henson is married to Rick Henson, secretary-treasurer of Portland-based Service Employees Local 49. A son and daughter-in-law are members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 and her 18-year-old son is applying for an organizing job with the Service Employees International Union.