The Oregon Labor Dispatch is a weekly email and blog series designed to keep Oregon’s workers informed of the latest news about unions, worker power, and much more. Each week, we bring you a curated selection of news stories, graphics, and information about upcoming events and actions. When Oregon’s Labor Movement is connected, updated and informed we are able to be stronger advocates for all working Oregonians.
If you have a news story, event or action you’d like to see featured in the Oregon Labor Dispatch please email us at communications@oraflcio.org.
Upcoming Events
🎵 AUGUST FAIR TRADE MUSIC MEETING
Tuesday, August 29, 7:00 - 8:00pm, Workers Tap (basement) 101 SE 12th Ave in Portland
Musicians Union (AFM) Local 99 is building solidarity between freelance musicians, clubs, and concert-goers to raise standards in the sector. Share your experience as a freelance musician at the monthly fair trade music meeting 5:30-7 p.m. on the last Tuesday of each month. Contact info@fairtrademusicpdx.org to sign up or for more information!
🏞️ LABOR DAY 2023
Monday, September 4: Picnics in Canby, Salem, Springfield, Bend and Phoenix
Join union members, local elected officials, and working families in communities across Oregon to celebrate Labor Day! Click here to find out more information about the picnics and events happening throughout Oregon.
Find more upcoming events on the Oregon AFL-CIO Solidarity Calendar. Do you have an event you’d like us to share? Send an email to communications@oraflcio.org and we’ll make it happen!
Disaster Recovery
August 22, 2023 | AFSCME
Please donate to AFSCME Fallen Heroes Fund to help fellow union members affected by not just the wildfires in Maui, Hawaii, but also the wildfires in Washington state and historic rains and flooding unleashed by Tropical Storm Hilary in Southern California.
August 21, 2023 | Labor Tribune
“To help the thousands of union families who lost everything in the massive Hawaiian wildfires of last week, the AFL-CIO has launched a special relief fund: Hawaii State AFL-CIO Labor Community Services Program/Hawaii Employees Lifeline Program. AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler made a special appeal to unions and union members for donations. For locals, the suggested donation is $2,500; from individuals, whatever you can afford.”
Oregon Labor
August 24, 2023 | Northwest Labor Press
From Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor: “At a time when polarization and political disagreement have reached a fever pitch, the last thing we need is more gridlock and dysfunction in the halls of our state capitol. We must build trust and confidence in our public institutions, and if 2022 was any indication, Oregonians expect their elected leaders to show up, do their jobs, take votes, and engage in the rigorous debate that moves us forward. These expectations don’t preclude dissent or heated debate. They just say that if you consistently don’t show up to do the job we’ve elected you to do, then there will be consequences. Working people don’t soon forget betrayals, and we will never stop fighting for a stronger democracy.”
August 24, 2023 | Northwest Labor Press
“If arbitration fails to produce a new master agreement, roughly 1,750 members at nearly 60 contractors could strike.”
August 24, 2023 | Northwest Labor Press
By Northwest Oregon Labor Council Executive Secretary-Treasurer Laurie Wimmer: “As the day approaches for celebrating our labor force and its hard-won gains, let us examine the arc of our movement.”
Strikes
August 25, 2023 | CNBC
“United Auto Workers members overwhelmingly granted union leaders authorization to call strikes during ongoing contract negotiations with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, if warranted.”
August 24, 2023 | Los Angeles Times
“Patient care is in crisis at Kaiser Permanente,” said Linda Bridges, president of one of the unions in the coalition, OPEIU Local 2 in Silver Spring, Md. “Staffing was decimated during the pandemic and it has not gotten any better. The problem we’re dealing with is Kaiser is not hearing us.”
August 24, 2023 | Northwest Labor Press
“Strike: It’s what every worker is thinking about right now, says Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor. Roughly 11,500 Hollywood writers and 65,000 actors are out on strike together for the first time in 63 years. Starbucks baristas are flexing the strike muscle almost weekly on short-term walkouts demanding a fair first contract. And 340,000 Teamsters at UPS just won historic gains as the company backed down in the face of their enthusiastic preparations to shut the company down.”
August 22, 2023 | 11 Alive
“In a show of support, nearly 4,000 actors and writers gathered Tuesday night for a "National Day of Solidarity" rally in Atlanta. Unions SAG-AFTRA and WGA joined forces with the AFL-CIO and its affiliates from across the nation and across industries for the movement, SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. There were a number of speakers including Liz Shuler, who is the president of AFL-CIO, the democratic federation of 60 national and international unions that represent 12.5 million working people. Shuler is the first woman leader of America's labor movement.”
August 22, 2023 | The Hollywood Reporter
“Thousands of union members braved a beating sun on Tuesday outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, as SAG-AFTRA brought out speakers including Kerry Washington, Martin Sheen and Ron Perlman as well as such labor leaders as Lindsay Dougherty, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and Joely Fisher as part of its National Day of Solidarity rally.”
Collective Bargaining
August 22, 2023 | International Brotherhood of Teamsters
“Today, Teamsters voted by an overwhelming 86.3 percent to ratify the most historic collective bargaining agreement in the history of UPS. The five-year contract protects and rewards more than 340,000 UPS Teamsters nationwide, raising wages for full- and part-time workers, creating more full-time jobs, and securing important workplace protections, including air conditioning.”
Labor & Civil Rights
August 23, 2023 | Word in Black
From National AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond: “Sixty years ago this month, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered perhaps his most famous speech to a quarter of a million people. He told the crowd that he dreamt of a day where “this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed,” where his children “will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” And it was a call to action “to make real the promises of democracy” and “to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.””
August 23, 2023 | USA Today
“It's 1963, and 15-year-old Clayola Brown just heard the news on the car radio in Philadelphia: There was going to be a march on Washington. She recalls the deep, heavy baritone of civil rights activist and march organizer A. Philip Randolph, describing the inequities of Jim Crow America and the promise of freedom and economic justice. "It was like a calling," said Brown, now 75 years old. "I just knew I wanted to be there."”
Labor & Economy
August 23, 2023 | Financial Times
“Behind today’s surge in labour action is a combination of a tight labour market raising employee leverage and the pandemic’s stark reminder that working conditions matter, said Candace Archer, policy director at the AFL-CIO union federation. She adds that inflation is better attributed to high corporate profits and supply-side disruptions than wage growth.”
Labor & Environment
August 22, 2023 | Mother Jones
“They’ve made the US the place for the private sector to invest in clean energy,” Samantha Smith, senior adviser for clean energy jobs at the AFL-CIO, said of the IRA’s incentives.”
Buy Union
August 23, 2023 | AFL-CIO
“Around the country, classes are starting up again, students are getting ready to learn once more and parents are rushing out to buy the supplies their children need for school. When shopping for those necessary items, you can make sure your purchases support working families.”
Free Labor Day Stickers
Are you a union member? Do you have a family member in a union? Or do you just want a free sticker and a way to show union pride this Labor Day? Sign up for National AFL-CIO text messages and request a sticker now.
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