People

Taking a building trades agenda to the Oregon Capitol

Electrician Wayne Chow, lobbying for the building trades in Salem, knows the difference a union makes, having suffered wage theft first hand.

Ready for prime time

A Portland building trades union member is a contestant on Season Two of CBS’ hit prime time reality show Tough as Nails.

IBEW’s Marcy Grail to chair Energy Facility Siting Council

The council is responsible for large electric generating facilities, transmission lines, gas pipelines, and radioactive waste disposal sites.

Building trades’ Camarillo named to I-5 Bridge advisory group

The bi-state group will develop recommendations for replacing the aging I-5 bridge over the Columbia River between Portland and Vancouver.

A dedicated union volunteer retires

Ellen Ino, a tenacious union volunteer and political campaigner, retired recently after decades of service to the labor movement.

Sheet metal worker by day, race car driver on weekends

Sheet Metal Workers Local 16 member Chris West competes in stock car races nearly every weekend throughout the summer.

New hands at helm of nurses union

Sarah Laslett joins ONA after 17 years as a labor educator. Her priorities will be organizing, empowering stewards, and bargaining for the common good.

Barbara Byrd wraps up 41-year career in labor movement

After 41 years as a labor educator and 14 years at the Oregon AFL-CIO, Barbara Byrd is retiring for real.

New leadership at the Oregon AFL-CIO

Graham Trainor, 38, and Christy O’Neill, 32, won the unanimous support of delegates at the Oregon AFL-CIO's biennial convention.

THE UNITER

Tapped for the job at a time of crisis, Tom Chamberlain helped reunify Oregon’s labor movement.

Union racer represents Local 701 training center on the speedway

Every Saturday from April to September, Operating Engineers Local 701 member Cory Garrison races his red 1970 Monte Carlo at Sunset Speedway.

New wage and hour chief comes to Oregon from the national union movement

Hired by Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle, former top building trades lobbyist Sonia Ramirez began her new position July 8.

A life-saving school bus driver

The focus and reflexes of a member of Local 757 may have saved lives in a near-miss last month.

Machinists District Lodge W24 rep Britt Cornman retires after decades in the labor movement

In a career that spanned mines, mills, railroad carrier, oil fields, and an assembly line, his support for the union once nearly got him killed.

Former IBEW business manager Ed Barnes honored as “First Citizen” of Clark County, Washington

Barnes is the first union official to receive the Community Foundation's exemplary citizenship award.

Questions for Washington AFL-CIO’s Jeff Johnson

Washington's top union leader, retiring soon, talks candidly about the highs and lows of his 40 years in the labor movement.

IBEW’s Ed Barnes named First Citizen of Clark County, Washington

The award is presented annually to a Clark County resident who has modeled exemplary citizenship.

Terry Lansing retires after 14 years at the helm of Bakers Local 114

Lansing retired Dec. 2 after a lifetime of involvement in the labor movement.

A sister to lead the Brotherhood

The region's largest construction union, 23,000-member Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters, has a new top officer: Evelyn Shapiro. Shapiro, 40, is the first woman ever elected to head a regional council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters in the United States.

Northwest Labor Press staff changes

Northwest Labor Press office manager Cheri Rice is retiring after 20 years; succeeding her is Jill Lukens. Both have long connections to local unionism.

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