Witt ineligible to serve as secretary-treasurer of AFL-CIO

The seat was declared vacant by the Oregon AFL-CIO Executive Board at its quarterly meeting Dec. 16. A successor to fill the unexpired term will be named when the board meets again in March. In the meantime, AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain will serve double-duty as secretary-treasurer.

UFCW was one of four unions to leave the national AFL-CIO last July to form the new Change to Win federation. But because the disaffiliations had such a huge financial impact on state and local labor groups, national leaders worked out a plan — called Solidarity Charters — allowing the Change to Win unions to maintain their affiliations with state AFL-CIO bodies and central labor councils, with full voting rights and eligibility to run for office.

Both Witt and former Oregon AFL-CIO President Tim Nesbitt (of the Service Employees International Union) were members of Change to Win unions. No one knew if Solidarity Charters would ever come to fruition, so in the interim, Nesbitt took up membership with the National Writers Union of the United Auto Workers and Witt joined a Machinists-Woodworkers local union.

Negotiations dragged on for months. With the outcome still uncertain, Nesbitt resigned as president of the Oregon AFL-CIO at the federation’s convention in October. He was succeeded by Chamberlain, a member of Fire Fighters Local 43. Also at that convention, delegates unanimously voted a constitutional change making the secretary-treasurer a part-time, unpaid position.

Witt had agreed to the resolution. Prior to the vote, he announced that he was returning to UFCW Local 555 as a full-time union representative. He planned to work for Local 555, fulfill his duties as the part-time secretary-treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO, and run for re-election as a state representative in the Oregon Legislature. Witt had taken a leave of absence from his AFL-CIO job last year to serve as a District 31 representative.

In November, the national AFL-CIO and Change to Win finalized the Solidarity Charter, which led to the reaffiliation at the state level of Service Employees Locals 503 and 49, UNITE HERE Local 9 and UFCW Local 1439, a small unit based in Spokane, Wash., but with members in Umatilla County, Oregon.

Reaffiliation discussions between Chamberlain and UFCW Local 555 were not successful, Chamberlain reported to the Executive Board on Dec. 16. Part of those negotiations included a UFCW proposal to have Witt return as the full-time paid secretary-treasurer.

“We will continue to reach out and have discussions with UFCW,” Chamberlain said.

However, under AFL-CIO rules, Witt was deemed ineligible to continue as the labor federation’s secretary-treasurer because Local 555 wasn’t an affiliated union.

“Brad has been very valuable to the union movement in Oregon, and I predict he will continue to do so at the Legislature and with Local 555,” Chamberlain told the Northwest Labor Press.

Witt has lived in Clatskanie since 1989. He has served on numerous state boards, including the Board of Forestry and the Management-Labor Advisory Committee for the Oregon workers’ compensation system.

In addition to his duties as chief financial officer and officer manager of the Oregon AFL-CIO, Witt handled workers’ compensation, health and safety, workforce and economic development, and natural resource issues for the labor federation.

He was a gubernatorial appointee to the Oregon Workforce Investment Board and also served on the executive board of the Oregon Forest Resource Institute, as that organization’s employee representative; on the State Boards of Forestry and Watershed Enhancement; and as chair of the bi-state Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership.

Witt worked in sawmills before joining the staffs of the national AFL-CIO, and later the Western Council of Industrial Workers, a division of the Carpenters Union (now a Change to Win affiliate), and UFCW Local 555, where his duties included public relations, labor economist and union representative.

Witt was elected secretary-treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO in September 1991.

Also at the Dec. 16 Executive Board meeting, Leslie Frane, executive director of SEIU Local 503, the state’s largest public-sector union, was reappointed to her seat as first vice president, and Alice Dale, president of SEIU Local 49 and an international union vice president, was reappointed to her at-large position on the board. The seats had been declared vacant following the national disaffiliation, but replacements were never sought because of the Solidarity Charter discussions.

Two positions previously held by representatives of UFCW Local 555 — a vice president and at-large seat — were filled.

Al Zullo, president and business representative of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, was appointed vice president. Zullo held an at-large seat on the board, so that post was declared open.

Appointed to the two open at-large Executive Board seats were L.C. Hansen, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82, and Leal Sundet, president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 8.

The Oregon AFL-CIO also announced several staff changes.

Steve Lanning, the longtime political director, has accepted a newly created post as field coordinator, where he will work on strategic planning and coordination with affiliates and central labor councils.

Andy Lehn was hired as political organizer; Duke Shepard was hired as the political/campaign director, and Jennifer Sargent was hired as the public relations/research director. All are full-time positions

Lehn previously worked as the director of the Oregon chapter of Working America, a community affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Shepard was the economic development and small business policy manager of the Portland Business Alliance. Before joining the Business Alliance, Shepard served as campaign manager to re-elect U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio. Sargent was the political organizer for the Oregon AFL-CIO during the 2001 legislative session, where she coordinated publications, action alerts and media relations.

Sargent started working last month. Both Lehn and Shepard will start their new jobs in mid-January.

Additionally, the Oregon AFL-CIO will contract with Tim Nesbitt to analyze and evaluate several health care and revenue initiatives for the 2006 general election.

© Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc.