“[Thomas Mosher] may be a third-generation Mets fan, but he says he’s here to stay.” That was the last line of our June 3 article announcing the election of a new executive secretary-treasurer of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council (NOLC). It didn’t age well.
Mosher was elected May 23 to succeed long-time NOLC leader Bob Tackett, who retired. But in August, Mosher says, he got an offer he couldn’t turn down: return to his former home of Philadelphia to work for the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. The job would be as a special advisor to come up with a strategy for the 2024 election. Also figuring in the decision: His wife, a neurologist, was recruited to start a clinic for multiple sclerosis in nearby southern New Jersey. The move puts them closer to family.
Mosher notified NOLC board members in late October that he’ll be moving this month. He says he’s worked out with Pennsylvania state party chair Sharif Street that he can continue to be available remotely to help NOLC until a successor begins.
Executive secretary-treasurer is an elected full-time position, and filling it can take three months or more under the labor council’s democratic bylaws, which require that the vacancy announcement, nominations, and election if needed take place at successive monthly delegates meetings. To be eligible, a candidate must be a union member in good standing and be nominated by delegates of an affiliated union. NOLC is a local body of the AFL-CIO; 76 local unions are affiliated, representing about 53,000 union members.
