Weekly Update: Are You Ready for Convention?

Are You Ready for Convention?

Take Action

Your union has postcards for you to sign and send to your Congressmen urging them to vote the right way on healthcare reform. Check in with your local president and ask them about it! If they haven't gotten postcards yet they can call our office and we'll send them right over. Oregon's Congressmen need to know that their constituents are still keeping up on the healthcare debate. Unless we keep the pressure on, middle class Oregonians and hard working families won't win!

Convention in 4 Days! Bend - Here Comes Oregon's Union Movement!

This is it! Sunday's Welcome Party will kick off our 2009 Convention in Bend, and boy are people excited! We want to keep a few surprises in the bag for this weekend, but here are a few highlights:

• Welcome party keynote speaker comedian Carl Wolfson is ready to keep you laughing all night long as he takes a hard look at where we're at in Oregon and the country as a whole

• Curious about the candidates for governor? Many of them will be at the convention. Catch their speeches, or catch them in the hall

• Ready for the new Oregon AFL-CIO? We'll be kicking off a new campaign that will help your union with organizing, politics and outreach as we move forward

In Other News...

One Union Employer Seems to be Losing Their Commitment to the Movement

A few months ago the IBEW called with a problem. Fred Meyer, a long time union-employer, was using out of state, low wage, labor to remodel their stores. The labor movement was infuriated, but because Fred Meyer is a union employer we were careful with the actions we took.

But Fred Meyer took it a step further last week.

UFCW is in the middle of contract negotiations with Fred Meyer, and their bargaining team was in Portland. Bargaining got delayed so a few Fred Meyer representatives went by the store in Hillsboro to talk to workers. According to UFCW and Fred Meyer's contract, union reps can talk to union members on the job as long as their work isn't interrupted. But a manager at Fred Meyer told the union reps they couldn't talk to members on the job. When the UFCW representatives tried to show the manager the contract he wouldn't take it, and called the cops, saying that the reps were trespassing.

UFCW 555's president and a few local and international staff were arrested and are awaiting a trial next week.

It's time for Fred Meyer to realize that fighting their workers' union won't help their business grow in Oregon!

National Labor Relations Nominee not an Easy Sell

President Obama's nominee to the National Labor Relations Board, labor lawyer Craig Becker, is running into a hard time getting the nomination. After months of fighting outside of the Senate over whether Becker would make a good Board member, Senator McCain has put a hold on the nomination, blocking the full Senate from taking a vote for now.

Two of Obama's previous appointees, one a labor lawyer and the other a Republican staffer to the Senate HELP Committee, were approved unanimously. Although Senate Republicans cite some of Becker's previous writings as their reason for concern, the hold seems to be strictly political.

Breaking News From Colombia

The following is a letter we received this afternoon. The continued violence against labor leaders in Colombia has devastated their workers' movement and brought pain to an already-hurting country.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We regret that we must send you tragic news of yet another assassination of a Colombian trade union leader, Honorio Llorente Melendez, a union organizer in the palm oil sector and, until he was recently fired for his union activity, the treasurer of the Sintrainagro agricultural workers' union in Sogamoso, Colombia. Brother Llorente had close ties to the US labor movement: a delegation of CLC leaders visited his community in 2008 to meet with union leaders; his regional labor council is working with the Solidarity Center on a campaign to organize palm sector workers; and one of his trade union colleagues from his region is a member of a delegation of Colombian union leaders currently participating in a Solidarity Center training in the US. Brother Llorente was actively involved in the campaign to organize palm oil workers in Colombia, and was awaiting a court hearing on his illegal firing later this week. He was murdered on Saturday, October 17, shortly after he departed a community demonstration against a proposed construction project. He leaves behind five children.

We ask that you not let Brother Llorente's murder go unnoticed. Please read and sign the attached letter, and send a copy to your congressional representatives. We also ask that you honor Brother Llorente's life by adjourning the next meeting of your central labor council in his honor, as the Sacramento Central Labor Council will do this week. We kindly request that you send copies of your letters to Molly McCoy at the Solidarity Center (mmccoy@solidaritycenter.org) and confirm if your organization recognized Brother Llorente at your meeting, so that the government of Colombia can in turn be notified of your support. The Solidarity Center can also assist should you wish to further show solidarity with Brother Llorente and with the surviving Colombian trade unionists through a letter of support or donation.

In Solidarity, Bill Camp Sacramento Central Labor Council (CA), Jeff Crosby North Shore labor Council (MA)