OPEIU appoints interim executive at Local 11

Kathleen Kinnick has been appointed interim executive secretary-treasurer of Office and Professional Employees Local 11 following the resignation of Debbie Sluyter.

Kinnick is a retired senior international regional vice president of OPEIU. She moved to Portland after retiring as president of San Francisco Local 3.

Kinnick twice served as interim secretary-treasurer of the international union following the deaths of Secretary-Treasurers Gilles Beauregard and Carol Dupuis in 2002 and 2003.

Her appointment to Portland-based Local 11 was made by International President Michael Goodwin, who emphasized that the local is not under trusteeship.

“I will perform the day-to-day duties of the the executive secretary-treasurer until a successor is elected and installed,” Kinnick told the NW Labor Press.

Nominations for the vacant post will take place at a Local 11 union meeting Tuesday, June 14 , at 7 p.m. at the Laborers-Teamsters Hall, 2212 NE Andresen Road, Vancouver.

A mail ballot will be conducted, with the new executive secretary-treasurer to be installed by Goodwin on July 19.

Sluyter had lost her bid for re-election to a second term in April. She challenged the eligibility of her opponent, John Sanks, and the union’s Election Committee ruled him to be ineligible.

Local 11’s Executive Board then voted by a narrow margin to declare Sluyter the winner. That ruling was appealed by a group of union members.

Instead of going through more appeals and possibly another election, Sluyter decided not to accept the Executive Board’s decision and she will not seek re-election.

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