Officers & Staff

AFL-CIO Headshots 3-20-22 - Tom Cook Photo-30.jpg

GRAHAM TRAINOR, PRESIDENT

Graham grew up in a small, rural, Midwestern town in the heart of the historical stronghold of the American automobile manufacturing industry, not far from the birthplace of the United Automobile Workers. His grandfather, a forty-year UAW member at a factory in Northeastern Indiana, used his union card to lift his family out of Depression-era poverty and into the middle class.

His grandfather’s deep roots within the UAW and his mother’s involvement in the Indiana State Teachers Association had far-reaching impacts on his life. As the son of an elementary school teacher and bank salesman, he was instilled with a strong work ethic and commitment to community service. From an early age, Graham always had a job. He baled hay, worked at a local hardware store, was a server in the restaurant industry, and was a UFCW member at a grocery store during college. He grew up with a keen understanding of the dignity and value of all work.

After graduating college, Graham’s passion for activism led him to a job as a community organizer. This exposure to the fight and struggle for social and economic justice, with organizations and campaigns across the country, had him hooked. He committed himself to a career of community and public service, wanting to fight for what mattered.

Graham joined the Oregon Labor Movement as the State Director for Working America, the community affiliate of the AFL-CIO in 2006. Throughout his career, he has worked hard to help Oregon workers build power through forming their own union and by winning political and policy campaigns that can make a tangible difference in their lives.

Graham has served in nearly every role at the Oregon AFL-CIO, as an organizer, campaign manager, political director, and as chief of staff. He has been on the frontlines of many fights for economic justice in Oregon throughout that time and was elected to serve as the youngest President in Oregon AFL-CIO history at the 2019 Oregon AFL-CIO Convention. At the 2023 convention, Graham was unanimously reelected as Oregon AFL-CIO President and is honored to continue to serve alongside Secretary-Treasurer Sarina Roher, RN.

He is a proud member of IBEW Local 48.

SARINA ROHER, RN, SECRETARY-TREASURER

Sarina Roher has worked for 20 years as a nurse, where she is passionate about meeting her patients’ needs, providing end-of-life planning and care, and fighting against healthcare disparities and for the affordability of our healthcare system. A lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, she was raised in Tacoma, Washington and has lived in Oregon since 1993. She currently serves as the Secretary for OFNHP, AFT Local 5017 among other duties. She has been a shop steward and Chair of the Professional Bargaining Unit for Kaiser where she emphasized addressing inequities and inequalities facing her members as well as winning historic racial justice language as part of the national bargaining team.

She has firsthand experience fighting bosses on the shop floor, and developing the skills and strategy of member leaders who are seeking to build and strengthen militant democratic unions. Sarina was drawn to the labor movement because she wanted to fight injustice in her workplace and to improve conditions on the shop floor. Driven by her fierce spirit of justice, she founded the Social Justice Committee at OFNHP where she currently serves as chair. She is truly inspired by the idea of labor unions working together as one to build power for Oregon workers. She believes in empowering members, showing that solidarity is a verb, fighting for workers’ rights and putting unions in the middle of the intersection of racial, gender, and social justice.

When she’s not standing up for working people, Sarina enjoys fishing, motorcycles, glamping, working on her yard, going to the beach, and of course causing good trouble.