Convention Day 1: ‘Hope must become our discipline’

WA Attorney General Nick Brown, AFL-CIO’s John Paul Smith, WSBCTC’s Heather Kurtenbach and more — here’s the run down of the opening plenary of the 2025 WSLC Convention

VANCOUVER, WA (July 23, 2025) — The Washington State Labor Council’s annual Convention kicked off on Tuesday, welcoming more than 400 union members and guests to downtown Vancouver for three days of movement building and fellowship. Joined by powerful speakers, delegates representing the Council’s 650 affiliated unions filled the Hilton Vancouver Convention Center with energy for opening day. 

WSLC President April Sims speaks Tuesday morning.

After a land acknowledgement led by Tulalip tribal member and International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 19 Recording Secretary Aliana Diaz, and welcoming remarks from Southwest Washington CLC President Ray Connor and Vancouver Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle, WSLC President April Sims opened Convention with a speech centered on the radical power of hope in heavy times. Addressing the broader context in which union members are gathering, Sims named attacks on workers’ right to bargain and to organize, the targeting of immigrant workers, and devastating cuts to public services. In the face of these challenges, Sims spoke of the need to build a practice of resiliency — a practice embraced by previous generations.

“If our ancestors had abandoned hope, we would be working 12 hours every day in mines, plants, and warehouses, with no minimum wage, no safety standards, and no right to organize. Without the radical power of hope, there would have been no Civil Rights movement. Working people would have no protections from discrimination on the job. Many of us in this room would still be denied the power of our vote. In short – if the generations of people who came before us gave up, if they had abandoned hope, this room would not be possible.”

AFL-CIO’s John Paul Smith addresses delegates.

True to her word, Sims lifted up moments of hope from across Washington’s labor movement since the body gathered in 2024: historic contracts for hotel workers in SeaTac and for Boeing Machinists, United Farm Workers’ pressure campaign on Windmill Farms, UFCW 367’s successful open bargaining strategy for a new contract, a first ever contract at Virginia Mason in Seattle, and more.

In his remarks, John Paul Smith, Executive Assistant and Chief of Staff to AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond echoed Sims’ celebration of Washington unions’ power, lifting up organizing wins at Lumen field and the University of Washington. 

Smith spoke passionately about the challenges facing working people across the U.S., as an anti-worker administration pulls all the levers to disempower working families while handing tax breaks to billionaires and even more power to CEOs. He called out the provisions in recently passed legislation to fund ICE at unprecedented levels, naming the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportation as an attempt to demonize workers, sow chaos, and stoke fear. He pointed out that this campaign is financed by funds that should be supporting healthcare access for millions of American families. 

“Healthcare will become more expensive for us, affecting our bargaining when we go to negotiate contracts,” said Smith. “And for what? To pay for detention centers, tents, filled with cages, with alligators outside? For militarized immigration enforcement and mass deportation? For tax cuts to billionaires? It’s a damn shame.”

But like the audience he addressed, Smith is confident in the power of organized labor to defend working families and fight back attacks on our rights. 

Tuesday’s panel touched on that power, focusing on a diversity of tactics taken by local unions to strengthen organizing and bargaining. Aria Joslyn, a UFCW 367 member, spoke about the open bargaining strategy that just secured a strong contract for grocery workers, and how Local 367 President Michael Hines’ commitment to a member-led union moved her to get involved in bargaining. Kati Durkin, lobbyist for WFSE, talked about lessons learned fighting for policy that would have allowed public sector workers to bargain over the use of artificial intelligence in the workplace. Neil Hartman, Government Affairs Director at the WA United Association of Plumbers and Pipefitters, walked the audience through strategies for building out a union-made clean energy economy. And Tiera Beauchamp, President of IFPTE 12, detailed the challenges facing federal union members like the navy shipyard workers Local 12 represents, and the member-to-member connections developing to overcome those obstacles. 

From left: Osta Davis, WSLC; Kati Durkin, WFSE; Aria Joslyn, UFCW 367; Tiera Beauchamp, IFPTE Local 12; and Neil Hartman, UA.

Convention delegates also heard from Heather Kurtenbach, the Executive Secretary of the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, the first woman to ever hold that leadership role. Kurtenbach spoke openly of her path into organized labor; she joined the Ironworkers apprenticeship a couple months after she got out of prison, crediting leaders in Ironworkers Local 86 for opening the door for her. From those beginnings, Kurtenbach built a successful career as a journey Ironworker, before turning her skills to political advocacy and her current leadership role. Her story embodies the theme of hope that emerged time and again on Tuesday.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown closed out the morning’s plenary, welcomed to the stage by raucous applause from the delegates. In his short months in office, Brown has filed more than a dozen suits to protect the interests of Washingtonians from federal assaults. Brown is proud of his office’s work to defend Washington, but lamented the necessity of that work. 

“It saddens me that so much of my job in this day and age is protecting Americans from their President,” said Brown.

Acknowledging the ways the federal government is failing in it’s duty to working families, Brown committed to taking on even more cases to defend workers, going after wage theft, enforcing worker protections, and protecting immigrant workers in Washington.

Delegates left the morning plenary to attend afternoon workshops and committees fired up to defend working people.

In the words of JP Smith: “We are mad as hell. We are not going back. And when we fight, we win.” 

The entirety of Tuesday’s plenary session is available to watch on TVW.