Friday, July 26 WSLC Convention coverage

(10:50 a.m.) — The convention is about to break up into smaller groups for AFL-CIO Listening Sessions about the future of the labor movement. Delegates’ input will be critical this September, when the AFL-CIO — the union federation uniting more than 12 million working men and women — will convene in Los Angeles to make big decisions about new ways to help working people gain a voice. These will include new forms of representation for workers, new approaches to politics and the global economy, new community partnerships, and more. Click here to join the discussion at the AFL-CIO website.

After these sessions, the convention plenery session for today ends so delegates can break for lunch and attend afternoon workshops. Gov. Jay Inslee will be addressing the President’s Club Luncheon.

That’s all for now. The Entire Staff of The Stand will not be blogging during Saturday’s action. Look for a roundup on Monday of what happened.

(10:40 a.m.) — Delegates just unanimously approved two resolutions in support of securing funding and continuing the fight to replace the Columbia River Crossing and in support of comprehensive immigration reform. The remaining proposed resolutions will be debated and approved tomorrow (Saturday). All approved resolutions will be posted at the WSLC website some time next week.

(10:20 a.m.) — Yesterday, IAM District 751 President Tom Wroblewski was presented with the individual Mother Jones Award for outstanding advocacy on behalf of Washington’s working families.

Today, the organizational Mother Jones Award was presented to three local unions that worked together to make sure that the workers who lost their jobs in the Hostess bankruptcy had the best re-employment services. The three unions were Operating Engineers Local 286, Teamsters Local 117 and Bakery Workers Local 9.

Christian Dube of Operating Engineers Local 286 accepts the Mother Jones Award on behalf of his union and the laid-off Hostess workers.

(10 a.m.) — In keeping with the convention theme of “Building Bridges,” delegates are now hearing from a Labor and Community Partnerships Panel. It features several distinguished leaders of community organization that routinely work with labor to advance workers’ causes, including Hilary Stern of Casa Latina, Will Pittz of Washington CAN, Rich Stolz of OneAmerica, and Dana Laurent of Win/Win Network.

Peter Lahmann receives the 2013 Bruce Brennan Award.

(9:45 a.m.) — This year’s recipient of the Bruce Brennan Award for outstanding advocacy for apprenticeship and job training was Peter Lahmann of the Northwest Laborers-Employers Training Trust.

Introducing Lahmann as this year’s recipient was WSLC staffer Lori Province:

Pete goes beyond training. He is regularly available to legislators and policymakers on apprenticeship and lifelong learning opportunities. He is the glue that coordinate multi-craft career fairs around the state to expose kids and adults to apprenticeship. And he is totally committed to ensuring that our returning Veterans have the skills linked to apprenticeship through the helmets to Hardhats program.

(9:30 a.m.) — The Entire Staff of The Stand was just told by a co-worker, “You smell like beer.”

Time to change our cologne.

Lily Wilson-Codega of Teamsters Joint Council 28 (center) apparently thinks the new lyrics to “Come Together” are pretty dang funny.

(9 a.m.) — This morning’s song was a creative adaptation of The Beatles’ “Come Together” featuring original lyrics by Richard Burton of the Washington State Nurses Association. He led the convention in the song that had references to the farmworkers’ strike at Sakuma Brothers and other local labor struggles. A fun time was had by all.

Following a truly inspirational invocation by the Rev. Shelly Fayette of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Vancouver (look for that one on TVW!), a panel is now underway about Creating Sustainable Jobs. Panelists include David Foster, Executive Director of the National Blue Green Alliance; K.C. Golden of Climate Solutions; and Mark Lowry of the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council.

VANCOUVER (8:30 a.m. — July 26, 2013) — The Washington State Labor Council’s 2013 Convention reconvenes this morning at the Vancouver Hilton Hotel and Convention Center. (See details and the agenda.) The Entire Staff of The Stand once again will be blogging live from the event, so check back right here for updates. If you are at the convention, come visit us. We are all sitting together in the back of the convention hall.