By JEFF KLATKE
Council 75 President
I am proud to issue this report as President of Oregon AFSCME for August 2015. Please share this report with the members of your local.
A key to a high-functioning union is communication. This month I want to introduce everyone to some of the Vice-Presidents on the Executive Committee, the members of which are a great resource for information specific to your local. Our Executive Committee is comprised of 20 elected decision-makers the majority of which represent specific work sectors or geographical parts of Oregon. The work sectors refer to the different kinds of members Oregon AFSCME represents: State of Oregon employees, County employees, City employees, Independent Providers (home-based child care), private sector employees (subject to the National Labor Relations Board), and employees of special districts like education, housing, parks and other districts or other quasi-governmental employers. Each of the elected Vice-Presidents representing these work sectors has an email address and is available to tell you about the work of Oregon AFSCME as it relates to your specific kind of work. The work sector VPs can be reached at StateVP@OregonAFSCME.com, CountyVP@OregonAFSCME.com, CityVP@OregonAFSCME.com, IndependentVP@OregonAFSCME.com, NLRBVP@OregonAFSCME.com, and SpecialVP@OregonAFSCME.com. Feel free to reach out to these Vice Presidents in your work sector for information. The president of your local should also be receiving periodic updates from the VP representing that local on the executive committee. Next month I will highlight the Regional District Vice-Presidents.
For members who were present at the Oregon AFSCME convention in April, you may remember the theme of my speech: “The inconvenience of progress.” The executive committee made some progress at our Saturday, Aug. 22 meeting and I regret that it turned out to be a bit more inconvenient than originally planned. The Monday before the meeting (5 days before the meeting) as I was drafting the meeting agenda with the statewide officers and our executive director we confirmed that there was no new business on the agenda that required any debate or voting. That being the case we decided to make the Saturday meeting a “virtual” meeting rather than an in-person meeting and save our union between $3,000 and $5,000. I instructed everyone to cancel their travel plans and attend the meeting via WebEx at home or at the nearest AFSCME office. The meeting ended up lasting less than 30 minutes, so it was good that we decided to not spend between $3,000 and $5,000 for a half-hour meeting. The inconvenient part was the technological issues some people experienced with WebEx or their own computers, but we have a solution to that already worked out so that in the future if there are other meetings that do not warrant statewide travel we will be able to interact effectively with the entire executive committee. This meeting was a big adjustment for the executive committee, but fiscal responsibility for our members’ dues made the decision an easy one that was embraced by the vast majority of the executive committee. If you are asking yourself, “Why didn’t the meeting just get cancelled?” the reason is because we are not yet constitutionally allowed to cancel monthly meetings of the executive committee. But we expect to receive approval from AFSCME International very soon regarding our request for permission to cancel monthly meetings.
I’d like to remind everyone that our annual Leadership Training Conference will be in Portland the weekend of Oct. 2-4, 2015. This is a Travel Fund eligible event and each local is eligible to be reimbursed for the expenses of up to one member to attend, up to $1,065. This is the largest training event for members to develop their leadership skills. Registration is currently open for the conference and on-line registration forms and class information can be found at this link. I strongly encourage locals to send at least one member to this training. Please register for the conference soon because space is limited to the first 125 members to register; to date we have received 84 registrations.
Note: Two new classes have just been added to the Leadership Training Conference – “Moving to Racial and Gender Justice in AFSCME”. These classes are intended to be taken as a complete, two-part series and will delve more deeply into racial justice themes than in the workshop “Building a More Inclusive Union” already on the class list. You can register for these classes and the Leadership Training Conference at this link.
Sep. 22 is National Voter Registration Day and Oregon voters have more ways to register than any other state. If you have moved recently or if you wish to update your voter registration you can do that on line at this link. If you are not yet a registered voter in Oregon you can register for the first time at this link. All voter registration on-line resources are available in English and Spanish. Please share this voter registration information with all of your members. Voting is the essence of a democracy. National Voter Registration Day is intended to make our democracy stronger by enabling all eligible voters to cast a ballot and participate in their government. Find out more about national Voter Registration Day here.
This election cycle AFSCME is creating more opportunities than ever to participate in the decision making process regarding a candidate endorsement for President of the United States. Members across the nations were invited to watch three live-streaming town hall events in Iowa with the three candidates to have been interviewed by the AFSCME International Executive Board (IEB). Earlier this summer the IEB sent all presidential candidates (except union-busting Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker) a candidate questionnaire to fill out and an invitation to be interviewed and considered for an endorsement. However, every single Republican candidate refused to meet with the AFSCME IEB. I think that it is unfortunate that these leaders in the Republican national party do not wish to build a relationship with your union or express any regard for the valuable work that you all do, but that was the decision they all made. Only Hilary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley participated in the IEB interviews and only those three participated the virtual town halls as well.
At the conclusion of the virtual town halls all members who were logged into the live-stream were emailed a survey about the candidate’s presentation and answers to the questions posed by fellow AFSCME members. This member feedback will be taken into consideration by the IEB when they make their decision to endorse a candidate. That decision could be made as early as Sep. 22 when they next meet, or it could be made later.
I plan to send a president’s report like this every month to local presidents, members of the Oregon AFSCME board, and any member who requests it and gives the Council Secretary a home email address. If you are a local president or other local officer, please share this information with the members of your local.
If you ever have any questions or wish to send me a comment, you can reach me at president@OregonAFSCME.com.
Thank you for being active in your union.
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