nwlaborpress.org | Oregon delegates take part in momentous AFSCME convention

July 16, 2010 Volume 111 Number 14

Oregon delegates take part in momentous AFSCME convention

Oregon union delegates had an impact in the 39th international convention of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), held June 27-July 2 in Boston, Massachusetts. Several resolutions that originated in locals of Oregon AFSCME were approved at the convention. And Oregon delegates were vigorous campaigners in the contested race to succeed William Lucy as secretary-treasurer of the 1.5-million-member union.

Local resolutions to win passage will:

Create a national-level AFSCME body to provide input to AFSCME lobbyists about climate change legislation, and direct that an AFSCME representative be sent to the next international climate talks, which will take place in Mexico City in November;
Put AFSCME on record opposing any privatization of water sources or delivery systems in the United States [A similar resolution passed at the most recent convention of the Oregon AFL-CIO];
Create a Green Ribbon Committee of the national union, to make environmental policy recommendations. Selected to head the committee was Molly Chidsey, a member of AFSCME Local 3580 at the Metro regional government.

Delegate Grant Swanson, Local 88 vice president and a page at Multnomah County library, worked to pass those resolutions, as well as push a fourth resolution encouraging AFSCME to support and do business with union-friendly co-ops. Delegates referred that resolution to the International Executive Board for further study.

The national union office also sponsored a resolution that aims to take Oregon AFSCME’s Green Caucus national. The Green Caucus is an affinity group for AFSCME members who are engaged in environmental issues. The convention-passed resolution encourages other councils and locals to form such groups.

The announcement by AFSCME secretary-treasurer William Lucy that he would retire at the close of the convention set off a contested campaign to succeed him. The two candidates were Lee Saunders, assistant to AFSCME President Gerald McEntee, and Danny Donohue, an international vice president and head of Civil Service Employees Association, a large New York local. Saunders ran with McEntee’s endorsement, and Donohue with Lucy’s endorsement.

Supporters of Saunders emphasized his knowledge of Washington, D.C., politics and ability to get AFSCME’s agenda passed in Congress. Supporters of Donohue liked his proposal to beef up the efforts of AFSCME’s state and local bodies, and his assessment that AFSCME should be less tied to the Democratic Party.

Oregon AFSCME has long had close ties to Lucy, even naming its Portland office after the union leader. Lucy is the founder and long-time president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, and was in Memphis when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated there, having come to support striking sanitation workers.

Unsurprisingly, Oregon was solid for Donohue. With roughly 5,000 delegates at the convention, voting strength was calculated based on the number of members they represented. The final tally was 652,660 for Saunders to 648,356 for Donohue — a margin of 4,304 votes.

Oregon AFSCME delegates noted that McEntee is expected to retire as president in two years.

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