Oregon Attorney General-elect Dan Rayfield has appointed a new volunteer cabinet to advise him on how to respond to possible future actions by the incoming Trump administration.
Of the dozen members Rayfield appointed to the new Federal Oversight and Accountability Cabinet, three are labor leaders: Graham Trainor, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO; Melissa Unger, executive director of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 503; and Joe Baessler, executive director of the Oregon branch of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). The cabinet’s creation was announced in a Dec. 19 press release.
Jenn Baker, a spokesperson for Rayfield, said the cabinet will help advise the incoming Attorney General if he has to take action against “unlawful or unconstitutional activity.”
“The Federal Oversight and Accountability Cabinet will help ensure Oregon is ready should there be unlawful attempts to roll back labor protections or weaken collective bargaining rights,” Baker said.
The cabinet is “going to be a really important space to help coordinate the Oregon response to what may or may not come to fruition related to federal overreach in the future,” Trainor told the Labor Press. “Whether it’s choice or immigration or LGBT rights or attacks on trans people and workers, the labor movement has got a key role to play, both to protect workers but also to be an ally in those spaces,” Trainor said.
Rayfield will chair the cabinet. Other members include law professors, executives from Oregon Health & Science University and CareOregon, and leaders of the ACLU of Oregon and the Oregon League of Conservation Voters.
