Longtime union officer Jackie Tate won a second two-year term as president of AFSCME Local 88 in local union officer elections that concluded Nov. 12.
Local 88 represents employees of Multnomah County and the homeless service nonprofits Transition Projects and Central City Concern. With nearly 3,500 members, it’s the second-largest AFSCME local in Oregon and has five state council staff assigned to support it in bargaining, contract enforcement, and internal organizing.
Tate ran at the head of a four-candidate “Unity Slate,” and two other slate members also won election — county health department lead steward Rachel O’Rourke as vice president and incumbent Cindy Sierra as treasurer.
They’ll have their hands full in the next two years as Multnomah County contends with tight budgets and the uncertain future of some federally funded programs. Much of the county’s budget consists of administering programs that rely on state and federal funding.
Local 88 members at Multnomah County have been working under the terms of their previous contract since it expired June 30, and bargaining is dragging. Management has balked at union proposals to raise the county’s wage floor to $27, the amount estimated as the minimum to enable a single person to afford an apartment in the county. The two sides will begin bargaining with the help of a state mediator starting Dec. 8.
Tate, 56, has been going to union meetings since she was brought along to them as a child growing up in Portland and Gresham. Her mother, Lucinda Tate, was a lifelong social justice activist who served in leadership in the Service Employees International Union.
After graduating from Gresham High School, Jackie Tate earned a degree in psychology from University of Maryland on a full scholarship. Tate went to work for Albina Headstart but was fired; told about her situation, a lawyer laughed at the trivial reason for the firing and said if she’d had a union she would not have been fired. Having grown up in a union household — and with a deeply felt identity as a Black woman with Mexican, Indigenous, and white heritage — once Tate went to work for Multnomah County, she got involved in Local 88 as a vehicle for justice. Tate started in 1994 as a county social worker embedded in schools in a program called Touchstone. When that program was eliminated in 2009, she transferred to the county’s aging services department, where she oversaw the licensing of adult care programs for seniors and people with disabilities. Over more than two decades, she served Local 88 members as a steward, lead steward, and member of the local executive board. In 2023 she was elected president in contested elections as part of a slate that committed to inclusivity and transparency. The successful slate also prioritized building solidarity both among union members and in the community.
“We really want to be a force for good in our community,” Tate told the Labor Press. In the 2024 election cycle, Local 88 endorsed and supported candidates for county commission who were seen as more progressive — Shannon Singleton and Meghan Moyer — and both won election.
If the local is to grow its power, Tate and the other officers will need members to become more active. Like other unions, Local 88 maintains high levels of support but struggles to get members to become more active. Only about 15% of members cast votes in the November union officer elections, for example, and monthly meetings draw only a small fraction of the membership.
President is the local’s only elected union office that is a full-time position. As with her first term, Tate emphasizes her role as part of a team of union officers.
Aside from wrapping up the county contract, their agenda for the next two years also includes working to strengthen the union’s steward program and pushing the county’s Workforce Equity Strategic Plan to focus less on managers and more on retaining front-line workers.
Tate said they also want to revive a campaign against top-heavy management that the union waged a decade and a half ago. Tate would like to see Multnomah County set a minimum number of workers that managers would be responsible for overseeing. It’s a concept known as “span of control.” Without some guidelines, managers may have a tendency to hire more managers instead of the staff who provide front-line service to the public. The State of Oregon has established a recommended ratio of 1 manager for every 11 workers, and Tate would like the county to consider that.
“I think most of the commissioners understand that the work that that they support that benefits their constituents is the work that line staff do,” Tate said.
Complete officer election results:
- President Jackie Tate (320) to Megan Gallagher (208)
- Vice President Rachel O’Rourke (297) to Becky Lillie (146)
- Treasurer Cindy Sierra (290) Dan Milimuka (177)
- Secretary Imogen Fox (252) to Katie Lentz (223)
- Executive board Kristen Harbert, Emilie Azorr, E Dominguez, and Megan Seeger (Human Services); Brianna Fisher, Grant Swanson, Emily Lofquist, Manuel Arellano, Alex Nevison, and Isaac Halozan (General Government & Library).
