By Doug Cunningham

It’s official. Oregon has a brand new Working Families Party. Barbara Dudley is a Working Families Party organizer.

[Barbara Dudley]: “We’re gonna be focusing on family wage jobs, on getting living wages paid for all kinds of work in this country, for things like universal and affordable health care, for adequate funding for public education. We want to get public education all through higher education accessible to working class kids again.”

Dudley says the party will be active in the November elections and will hold a founding convention this summer.

By Doug Cunningham

Oregon is well on its way to getting a Working Families Party. More than 20,000 petition signatures to form the new political party were recently turned in to the state’s Elections Division. Labor leaders and community activists have organized the effort to create Oregon’s Working Families Party. The party could be on the ballot in November. Tom Chamberlain, President of the Oregon AFL-CIO, says the goal of the new party will be to consolidate labor votes behind candidates who best represent the interests of working families.

By Doug Cunningham

The Oregon AFL-CIO is among the supporters helping to organize The Working Families party in Oregon. Barbara Dudley is an organizer of the political party being formed to support a working families agenda in Oregon.

[Barbara Dudley] : "It's not just about unions. It's issues relevant to all working families. The gap between rich and poor, as well all know, is growing, growing, growing. Working people often have to work more than one job to support their family. Pensions are disappearing, health care. So they need a party that's going to speak to those. And the Democratic Party has not been very good about focusing on those."

By Jesse Russell

With New York City's municipal union, AFSCME DC 37, endorsing Michael Bloomberg for reelection, some eyes have turned to the Working Families Party. The party is a community-labor coalition based in New York State and made up of more than 50 labor organizations. Working Families has had some important successes in both endorsing candidates and running their own. New York media organizations have called the early endorsement of Bloomberg by DC37 "a nail in the Democrats coffin." However, the Village Voice notes on their website that during the last mayoral election, DC 37 endorsements didn't affect the primary, run-off or general elections. The members of the Working Families Party have yet to come to a consensus on who to endorse in the race, but Alex Navarro, spokesperson for the coalition, doesn't think the decision of DC37 will affect that decision.