Oregon AFSCME Council 75 has named San Francisco union leader Michael Seville to replace its longtime executive director Ken Allen, who is retiring at the end of July.
Seville currently is research director at Local 21 of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) — a 10,000-member public sector union representing employees at the City and County of San Francisco and other local governments in the Bay Area.
Oregon AFSCME is the statewide organization that coordinates political work and provides staff representation to locals of state, county, and municipal workers.
Seville will begin working there in mid-June, overlapping with Allen for six weeks.
With a journalism degree from University of California Santa Cruz and a law degree from Golden Gate University, Seville worked as a journalist and as a labor attorney prior to joining Local 21. As a lawyer representing building trades unions in San Francisco, he helped secure an agreement that established saliva testing as a more accurate, less intrusive form of drug testing.
At Local 21, Seville led fights against contracting out union members’ work, and helped defeat an attempt to cut public employee pensions in San Jose. He also helped create a publicity campaign that highlighted the work of Local 21 members.
Seville said he expects to bring Local 21’s fact-driven approach to contract bargaining, in which the union conducts a thorough economic analysis before beginning negotiations.
“We pride ourselves on knowing the budget better than the employer,” Seville told the Labor Press.
