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 Actions
OFNHP: Enough is Enough! We Demand Safe Staffing Now! Union Picket at Kaiser Sunnyside
Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Hospital
Today, January 13 at 4:30pm
ONA: Rally at Providence HQ to improve paid leave for caregivers in the Providence system
Providence Headquarters: 4400 NE Halsey Street
Friday, January 20 at 4:30pm
The Future of Work
Jan. 12, 2023 | Politico
“People who develop technology, maybe in a lab they think it’s going to work perfectly, but I can give you some examples of where technology has been introduced [into a workplace where] they clearly did not consult with people who actually do the job, and it's been a quasi-, if not full, disaster,” said D. Taylor, president of the hospitality union UNITE HERE.
Strikes
Jan. 12, 2023 | The New York Times
More than 7,000 nurses at two New York City hospitals ended a three-day strike and returned to work on Thursday, after they resolved what they said was the major sticking point in negotiations with the hospitals: too few nurses. The tentative contract deals the nurses reached with Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx early Thursday would also increase their pay, an agreement the unions and hospitals had largely nailed down before the strike began.
Jan. 10, 2023 | The Stand
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler released the following statement today on the case: “The right to strike is on trial today at the U.S. Supreme Court. For nearly a century, federal law has protected workers’ right to strike in order to improve their wages, hours and working conditions. Glacier Northwest is actively seeking to undermine this fundamental right, arguing that it is entitled to sue the union in state court and seek monetary damages for undelivered concrete product as the result of truck drivers striking for fair wages and better working conditions. Glacier’s argument flies in the face of long-standing precedent and is a direct attack on the right to strike, a pillar of any democracy.”
Organizing
Jan. 12, 2023 | Vice
The Amazon Labor Union has officially been certified by the National Labor Relations Board, the union announced on Wednesday night. Amazon is now legally obligated to start bargaining a contract in good faith with the ALU, nine months after workers first won their union election at the company’s mammoth JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island.
Jan. 11, 2023 | Inside Higher Ed
Graduate student instructors and researchers at Yale University voted to unionize, 1,860 to 179, they announced this week. Some 3,214 workers total were eligible to vote. The National Labor Relations Board certified the election, which was years in the making. Yale’s is one of academe’s longest-running graduate student organizing campaigns, dating back to the 1990s.
Jan. 11, 2023 | CNN
Workers at Apple’s first unionized retail store began collectively bargaining with management on Wednesday, in a milestone moment not only for the iPhone company but for all of Big Tech. Apple store workers in Towson, Maryland, who made history in June by voting to form the first union at one of the tech giant’s US stores, started contract negotiations with Apple management on Wednesday morning.
Jan. 11, 2023 | Yahoo! News
REI workers in Northeast Ohio are aiming to make their store the third to unionize in less than a year, according to the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). The labor group said in a statement Wednesday that a “majority” of employees at the REI store in the Cleveland suburb of Orange Village had signed union cards and submitted a petition for a union election to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).