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This week's Rogue, the Oregon School Employees Association board of directors, left four bodies and lots more unanswered questions in its wake last week. The OSEA--which represents 16,000 clerical workers, janitors and bus drivers in Oregon schools--fired its executive director, Paul Krissel, and organizing director, Joe Woodard, in a move that is widely viewed as ideological house cleaning. The other two casualties, field director Edward Taub and board member Lynda Newell, resigned in protest the day after Krissel's ouster. The firings surprised many union activists, who were pleased with Krissel. After taking the executive director post in December 1994, Krissel quickly changed the OSEA from a sleepy, low-profile association into an energized, politicized, activist-oriented union. OSEA, which represents about 7,000 workers in Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, was suddenly out front on the minimum-wage issue, forming coalitions with other unions, training members to negotiate contracts and adding hundreds of new members. "We were a quiet association before Paul," says former board member Carollin Nothiger, a 20-year employee of the Sweet Home School District print shop. "We never even used the word 'union.' Paul changed all that. We started doing union stuff--like, for starters, organizing." Brad Witt, secretary treasurer of Oregon AFL-CIO, says Krissel's leadership dramatically changed OSEA. "We had noticed that they had become much more activist," Witt says. "It has been very helpful. They started to help haul the water for the labor movement, taking a leadership role on workers' comp issues." Krissel says he was given no reason for his termination. "I thought they were pleased with my performance," he says. The OSEA board members may have had good reason for ousting Krissel, but if they do, they aren't telling the union members or the public. OSEA President Ron Rogers and Krissel's replacement, OSEA lobbyist Ed Edwards, did not return Willamette Week's phone calls. Sources within the union speculate that the old guard felt threatened by the new activists working their way up the ranks. "I guess some people are afraid of change," says Nothiger, who was on the board when Krissel was originally hired. |
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