Oregon’s largest private-sector union elects new leaders

The slate led by Dan Clay and Jeff Anderson was elected president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555.

Clay will succeed Gene Pronovost, who is retiring and did not seek re-election. Anderson will succeed Jeff McDonald, who vacated the secretary-treasurer’s post to run for president.

Anderson defeated Roberta Cunningham in the race to fill the open seat for secretary-treasurer.

Tigard-based Local 555 represents approximately 18,000 workers in Oregon and Southwest Washington. It is the largest private-sector union in the state.

Both Clay and Anderson are full-time organizers for the local.

Clay, 31, was hired in 2000. He has worked as a union representative, membership coordinator, and organizer in the Medford, Eugene and Portland offices. Prior to being employed full time with the union, Clay earned a bachelor of arts degree from Multnomah Bible College. As a teenager he volunteered during UFCW strikes in 1990 and 1994.

Anderson, 50, is a 32-year member of the union. He has been on staff for 21 years and has worked in every department of the local, including stints as head of the Organizing Department and director of the Legislative and Community Affairs Department.

Aside from his work for the union, Anderson is a member of the Salem Electric Cooperative board of directors. He is a former chair of Oregon’s Wage & Hour Commission, and in 1994 he ran for U.S. Congress in the 5th District.

Local 555 is in the midst of contract negotiations for some 6,000 grocery workers, meat cutters and central checkout clerks at Kroger (Fred Meyer, QFC), Albertsons, and Safeway stores in the Portland area. Employees have been working under contract extensions since July 26.

The last round of bargaining took place Sept. 16, with the sides tentatively agreeing to several basic language items. Meat and potatoes items such as wages, pensions and health insurance have yet to be dealt with.

Anderson said “a smooth transitioning” is taking place between the new Local 555 administration and the old administration, and that he and Clay are in preliminary discussions with employers to resume bargaining later this month or by early December.

All talks had been postponed while the union election was in progress.

Contracts have already been ratified in Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis, Salem, Sweet Home, Vancouver and Longview, Wash., Medford, Roseburg, Klamath Falls, Coos Bay, Brookings, The Dalles and Hood River.

Clay and Anderson, along with a newly-elected Executive Board don’t officially take office until Jan. 1, 2009. Terms of office are three years.

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