Keynote Speaker: Executive Secretary-Treasurer of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council

From Northwest Labor Press:

Laurie Wimmer started March 6 as executive secretary-treasurer of the Northwest Oregon Labor Council (NOLC), coming out of retirement to try to rebuild a local labor institution that has lagged in attendance and participation.

NOLC serves the Portland metro area, fostering solidarity among affiliated AFL-CIO unions and advocating a pro-worker agenda to local elected officials.

Wimmer spent 25 years of her career lobbying in Salem for the Oregon Education Association (OEA), the state-wide organization of K-12 teachers unions, and was a member of the union for OEA staff. There, she fought efforts to privatize public education, and did battle with now-discredited anti-tax crusader Bill Sizemore. She arrived just as property tax limitations tightened school budgets at districts statewide. In response, she founded and led the Oregon Revenue Coalition, a group of unions and nonprofit groups that pushed to increase state revenues in order to fund public services. She retired from OEA in 2022.  READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE >

From the MultCo Dems:

A third-generation Oregon Democrat, child of two union members, and parent to yet another generation of Dems.  A progressive activist and one of the key architects of Oregon’s Student Success Act (which will add $1 billion a year in perpetuity to the state’s chronically underfunded public education system).

She has remained active in investigating issues surrounding the state’s schools as Government Relations Consultant at the Oregon Education Association. READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE >