Delegates from labor unions around Oregon will convene in Eugene Sept. 26 for the Oregon AFL-CIO biennial convention. Oregon AFL-CIO is the state’s premier labor union federation, made up of affiliated locals from about 40 international unions with a total of about 112,000 members.
Highlights of the three-day meeting will include a 45-minute debate among candidates for U.S. House seat, a visit from Oregon governor John Kitzhaber, and a presentation from Karen Nussbaum, executive director of the national AFL-CIO’s community affiliate Working America.
Other guest speakers include U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley, AFL-CIO Industrial Council director Bob Baugh, Oregon House Democratic leader Tina Kotek, British Columbia Labor Federation president Jim Sinclair, and national AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt-Baker.
Delegates will vote on policy resolutions, and will choose the state labor federation’s officers for the next two years. As of press time, president Tom Chamberlain and secretary-treasurer Barbara Byrd were expected to run for re-election.
The convention will take place at the Eugene Hilton Hotel & Convention Center. Workers there are not union-represented, but the Portland-headquartered hotel workers union UNITE HERE Local 9 has no objection to meeting there; for now only four hotels in Oregon are union-represented, all in Portland.
