Barbara Byrd, a member of the American Federation of Teachers Local 2277, was appointed secretary-treasurer of the Oregon AFL-CIO. She will fill the unexpired term of Brad Witt, who was declared ineligible due to the disaffiliation of his union, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555.

Byrd was elected by acclamation at the March 10 quarterly meeting of the Oregon AFL-CIO Executive Board. She is the first woman to ever hold that post in Oregon.

Later in the day, the labor federation’s Committee on Political Education (COPE) issued several endorsements for the May primary.

Byrd is the the senior instructor and Portland center coordinator for the Labor Education and Research Center of the University of Oregon. She also contracts with the national AFL-CIO and state labor federation doing training and developing curricula on organizational and workforce development issues.

Because the post of secretary-treasurer is part time, Byrd will go to half-time status at LERC while continuing her work with the national federation.

Byrd has been a union member and labor educator for more than 25 years. She holds a doctorate in adult education from the University of Texas and a master of science in labor studies from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Byrd said one of her goals is to help recruit and train new leaders among younger members and immigrants. “This is vital for the future of our labor movement,” she said.

COPE delegates endorsed a slate of candidates for the May 16 primary. However, there was no action — or discussion — on the race for governor.

COPE supported Gene Hallman, a Pendleton attorney, for an open seat on the Oregon Supreme Court, Position 6. It also supported Robert “Skip” Durham for re-election to the high court. Durham is running unopposed.

COPE has already endorsed the re-election campaigns of Dan Gardner for labor commissioner and Susan Castillo for superintendent of public instruction. Gardner, a member of Electrical Workers Local 48, is running unopposed and Castillo has a challenger new to politics.

In legislative primary races, COPE endorsed incumbent Democrats Betty Komp, Jeff Barker, Chuck Riley, Deborah Boone, Larry Galizio, Dave Hunt, Jeff Merkley and Mike Shaufler in the House and incumbent Democrats Floyd Prozanski, Vicki Walker, Richard Devlin, Kurt Schrader and Rick Metsger in the Senate.

COPE also endorsed Brad Avakian, a Democrat running in Senate Dist. 17; and House candidates Brian Clem in Dist. 21, David Edwards in Dist. 30, Tina Kotek in Dist. 44, and Rob Brading in Dist. 49.

Early endorsements — based on 100 percent COPE voting records — have already gone to incumbent State Senators Bill Morrisette and Frank Shields; and incumbent State Representatives Peter Buckley, Paul Holvey, Arnie Roblan, Phil Barnhart, Elizabeth Terry Beyer, Brad Witt, Mary Nolan, Carolyn Tomei, Diane Rosenbaum, Chip Shields and Jackie Dingfelder, and to candidate Mary Botkin, a lobbyist for Oregon AFSCME Council 75.

In Congressional races, the AFL-CIO endorsed incumbents Earl Blumenauer, David Wu, Darlene Hooley and Peter DeFazio. All are Democrats.

COPE opposed several initiative petitions currently collecting signatures to qualify for the November ballot. They include I-39, to re-impose term limits for legislators; I-24, to elect judges by district rather than statewide; I-8 and I-37, petitions to amend the constitution to limit campaign contributions and establish new campaign finance requirements and limitations.