SEASIDE— Firefighters hate to hear the words “back down.”

“It means a building is lost.” said Tom Chamberlain, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO and a member of Portland Fire Fighters Local 43. “As a firefighter leading the AFL-CIO, I vow the Oregon union movement will never back down.”

With that, more than 250 delegates attending the 50th convention of the state labor federation agreed to fund Labor 2008’s political campaign with a special one-time per capita tax assessment that will generate upwards of $300,000. They also launched the “Unity Team” — a formation of 15 union leaders and organizers who will coordinate large-scale multi-union organizing campaigns throughout the state.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for a fight,” Chamberlain said.

Chamberlain and Barbara Byrd were re-elected without opposition to new four-year terms as president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of the Oregon AFL-CIO. The secretary-treasurer post is part-time.

A full slate of Executive Board and Executive Committee members also were elected or re-elected by acclamation.

The national AFL-CIO has picked Oregon as a target state in the 2008 election cycle. Its primary goal is to help defeat Republican U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith.

Keynote speaker John Sweeney, president of the national AFL-CIO, put it simply: “Gordon Smith has got to go now.”

Sweeney said at the national level the AFL-CIO next year will spend a record $53 million on political education, registration, information and get-out-the-vote drives. The labor federation will concentrate its efforts on 13 U.S. Senate races (including Oregon) and more than 50 U.S. House races in an effort to increase the pro-union majorities in both chambers.

Two Democrats vying to challenge Smith in next year’s general election — attorney Steve Novick and Oregon Speaker of the House Jeff Merkley — spoke to delegates. Both men have close ties with unions and are considered friends of labor.

Novick is a Harvard graduate who stands 4-feet-9 inches tall and has a hook for a left hand, joked about his stature. “To beat Gordon Smith, it’s going to take something a little different. Well, I’m little. And I’m different,” he said.

Novick said it might be risky backing an “untraditional” candidate. “But unions are about taking risks. Every time you stand up to the boss, you’re taking a risk.”

Merkley, who had the unenviable task of speaking right after Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, asked delegates to envision what could be accomplished with a Democrat-controlled Congress and a Democratic president. “We have a lot of Smith and Bush handiwork to undo,” he said.