United Association of Plumbers and Fitters was in his blood, or maybe his genes, as Randall Friesen tells it. Friesen, 43, is a fourth generation union member, following the same trade as his great-grandfather, grandfather, father, and uncle.
In October, Friesen was given a big responsiblity: building power and opportunities for more than 20,000 Portland area building trades union members. Friesen was elected executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council, which represents the interests of 22 affiliated unions. He’s been preparing for that for some time.
Friesen grew up in Klamath Falls, and after school he hung out in the commercial plumbing shop with his dad and uncle as early as third grade. He began his five-year union apprenticeship in 2001 and completed it in 2006, traveling all over Oregon and even into Nevada for work. Early on he attended a few union meetings a year, but didn’t get involved until a chance conversation in 2014 with UA Local 26 member Ray Connor on a high-tech construction job site in Washington County. Then and now, Connor was involved in his local’s political action committee (PAC). Connor told Friesen that UA Local 290 was starting a PAC and encouraged him to get involved. Friesen took the nudge, and within a few meetings found himself drafted to be the committee’s chair. Talking face-to-face with candidates changed his outlook.
“We forget that candidates and elected officials are still people,” Friesen tells the Labor Press. “It sounds so basic, but it’s true. It’s pretty easy to villainize people and forget that they’re just people.”
Being part of the PAC led to deepening involvement. In 2018 he became an officer in Southwest Washington Central Labor Council. In 2021 he took a job promoting union apprenticeship programs for the Washington State Building Trades Council. In 2023, he went to work as assistant business manager of UA Local 290 under business manager Joe Neely. That ended when Neely lost re-election. Friesen took some downtime and went back to the tools as a fab shop foreman for JH Kelly. But newly elected business manager Paul Elder kept him on as a delegate to the Columbia Pacific Building Trades Council. When that organization’s top officer Kevin Lux stepped down, Elder put Friesen forward for the job, and he won the support of the council’s other affiliates.
In his new role, Friesen wants to freshen up how the union building trades market themselves. There’s a powerful story to be told about how these worker-run organizations change members’ lives and build local communities. Friesen says he’s ready to move past that story being a “best-kept secret.”
