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.
🪧 TAKE ACTION: SUPPORT STRIKING WORKERS
Teamsters at Bigfoot Beverages remain on strike in five cities across Oregon. The Oregon AFL-CIO Strike Map is updated with the latest information about where active picket lines can be found.
⚠️ TAKE ACTION
Online Action | AFGE
Time is running out for us to take action on the agency's impending telework policy. Our union has been hard at work for months negotiating with management on telework. As you know, management decided to abandon their bargaining obligation and implement this new telework policy without our consent.
Online Action | AFL-CIO
For more than 52 years, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) workers have unfairly had their retirement funds raided by the U.S. government—resulting in more than $90 billion in unjust expenses to the USPS. And we need your help to send a message to the Biden administration to do the right thing for postal workers.
Click-To-Call Action | AFL-CIO
S. 597 would repeal two unfair parts of the Social Security law that could reduce retirement benefits for millions of postal and federal workers. We need as many people as possible to call to urge their senators to support this legislation that will help millions of retirees.
📖 MUST READ
December 11, 2024 | AFL-CIO
Today, 50 senators didn’t just vote against Lauren McFerran’s reconfirmation—they voted against the working people of this country. Make no mistake: This vote had nothing to do with stopping Chair McFerran’s renomination and everything to do with reversing generations of progress workers have made toward building a fairer and more just economy.
December 11, 2024 | ABC News
Labor unions decried the vote. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest consortium of labor unions, said the senators who rejected McFarren's nomination “voted against the working people of this country” and warned that the incoming Trump administration would direct the NLRB to side with management over workers. “Make no mistake: This vote had nothing to do with stopping Chair McFerran’s renomination and everything to do with reversing generations of progress workers have made toward building a fairer and more just economy," Shuler said.
December 10, 2024 | Forward Kentucky
“Trump’s decision to select a more pro-worker labor secretary could be more of a messaging maneuver than a substantive one,” Vox’s Li Zhou wrote of lame duck Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore). She’s president-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head the Department of Labor.
🏔️ OREGON LABOR
December 11, 2024 | ABC
The proposed merger between supermarket giants Kroger and Albertsons floundered on Tuesday after judges overseeing two separate cases both halted the deal. U.S. District Court Judge Adrienne Nelson issued a preliminary injunction blocking the merger Tuesday after holding a three-week hearing in Portland, Oregon.
December 6, 2024 | The Oregonian
Roughly 5,000 nurses, hospitalists and other health workers have authorized strikes at Providence Health & Services facilities across Oregon.
December 6, 2024 | Portland Tribune
The Oregon Nurses Association announced Wednesday that nearly 5,000 health care workers at seven hospitals and six clinics had voted to authorize strikes over pay and working conditions. While no walkouts are currently planned, the strike authorization votes have become a routine bargaining tactic as the nurses union has become increasingly emboldened in the wake of the pandemic.
December 6, 2024 | OPB
Hundreds of graduate student workers at Oregon State University are set to go back to work on Dec. 9, just in time for the blitz of exams, closing projects and grading associated with finals week.
December 5, 2024 | OPB
“There is a huge talent pool made up of workers who are more productive, more efficient, and better able to contribute to the City’s mission when they can do that work remotely, at least some of the time,” one employee wrote in the chat. “It is critical that decision makers recognize that remote work opportunities are essential for equity.”
December 5, 2024 | Portland Business Journal
Contract talks between Portland grocer New Seasons Market and its employees’ union have spilled into public view with a high profile strike and now calls for boycott.
✊🏼ORGANIZING
December 10, 2024 | The Daily Pennsylvanian
From graduate student workers to local baristas, an unprecedented wave of campus labor organization continued across the Penn community in 2024. The past year saw the formation of three new campus unions, one historic union contract ratification, and increased momentum in negotiations between the University and campus labor groups. Penn has also faced allegations of union-busting tactics and bad-faith negotiations with unionized campus workers.
Technical production crew, including camera operators and replay, for Timberwolves and Lynx unionize
December 11, 2024 | KSTP
On Wednesday, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 745 announced that the technical production crew for the Timberwolves and Lynx have voted to unionize. The 50 crew members for the two Minnesota professional basketball teams include people who run in-house cameras, replay, video production, audio and post-production.
📣 STRIKES & COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
December 11, 2024 | The Washington Post
The WNBA and the league’s players union met in person Wednesday to discuss a new collective bargaining agreement. “Today’s meeting included preliminary conversations and constructive dialogue, with a mutual agreement to continue discussions for a transformational, new CBA,” the two sides said in a joint statement.
December 11, 2024 | KQED
Since Sept. 22, thousands of hotel workers at some of San Francisco’s largest hotels have been in a stalemate with employers, demanding wage increases and affordable health care. KQED’s Farida Jhabvala Romero explains why this dispute has dragged on, and why everyone has a stake in what happens to the city’s hotel industry.
December 11, 2024 | Fox 5 Atlanta
Dozens of Frontier flight attendants will hit the picket line at the Atlanta airport on Wednesday to call for betting contracts and working conditions. The demonstration at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport is part of the first nationwide Frontier Day of Action. In September, the Frontier flight attendants, who are represented by the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA), voted 99.6% to authorize a strike. More than 92% of union flight attendants participated in the vote.
🏛️POLITICS
December 11, 2024 | CBS News
Democrat-led push to secure a majority on the National Labor Relations Board until 2026 fell short on Wednesday, as Senate Republicans and two independents blocked the nomination of Lauren McFerran to continue serving on the labor board. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer filed cloture Monday on the nominations of McFerran, a Democrat, to remain for another five-year term on the National Labor Relations Board. McFerran is the current chair of the NLRB whose term is set to expire later this month. Her confirmation to another term would have maintained a Democratic majority on the board, in a move that would have marked a key victory for Democrats heading into a second Trump administration and a Republican trifecta in Washington.
December 11, 2024 | The Washington Post
The Biden administration is preparing new rules that would limit “junk fees,” cap bank overdraft charges and shield Americans from medical debt, as officials race over the next six weeks to finalize the remainder of the president’s economic agenda.
December 11, 2024 | NBC News
In legacy mode, outgoing President Joe Biden’s White House is warning the Republicans who are about to take power against repealing his biggest achievements. “Repealing President Biden’s signature laws would be an historic redistribution of wealth from working Americans to Big Pharma and China,” Andrew Bates, a senior White House spokesperson, writes in the subject line of a new memo being circulated to interested parties and allies, which was first obtained by NBC News.
December 11, 2024 | CBS News
President Joe Biden is reportedly preparing to block the sale of U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel. As of Wednesday morning, a U.S. National Security Panel is reviewing the proposed $15 billion deal and the panel has to refer its decision on the merger to President Biden by Dec. 22 or 23. Bloomberg News reports that once it happens, the president is expected to block the deal on grounds of national security. That news comes as Nippon Steel announced it would give union employees of U.S. Steel each a $5,000 bonus should the deal go through. They also have promised to invest $1 billion in U.S. Steel's Mon Valley Works. On Tuesday, The United Steelworkers responded, agreeing with President Biden's reported blocking of the deal, calling Nippon's offer of $5,000 to union members "attempted bribery."
December 10, 2024 | The New York Times
President Biden said on Tuesday that President-elect Donald J. Trump’s plans to impose tax cuts for the wealthy and sweeping tariffs would be “a major mistake,” while warning that the incoming president would face blowback from Republicans if he moved to unwind the Biden agenda.
December 10, 2024 | Los Angeles Daily News
In anticipation of the Los Angeles City Council vote on Wednesday, Dec. 9, to increase the minimum wage for tourism workers to $25 per hour, and reaching $30 per hour by 2028, workers represented by Unite Here Local 11 and SEIU-USWW will participate in a three-day hunger strike outside of City Hall. Dozens of airport and hotel workers are expected to take part in the “spiritual journey of foregoing food and drink in hopes of inspiring … city leaders to stand with them and vote for an improved wage and healthcare benefits,” a union contact said.
👷🏽♀️APPRENTICESHIPS & TRAINING
December 9, 2024 | Construction Dive
With a societal focus on going to college, entering the trades may not initially seem like a viable pathway to long-term success or financial stability. However, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) is working to change that perception.
December 9, 2024 | News 3 LV
A growing number of women are entering the construction industry, breaking through the so-called "glass ceiling" not only in boardrooms but also on construction sites across America. According to the Institute for Women's Policy Research, the number of women working in construction increased by more than 28% between 2018 and last year,
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