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
🏫 SUPPORT PSUFA OPEN BARGAINING
TOMORROW: July 14: 10:00am - 4:00pm, Karl Miller Center, room 318. 615 SW Harrison St in Portland and on Zoom
Bargaining observers play a crucial role in winning a fair contract during negotiations. Your observation shows PSU admin that we have support and attention from our membership, and puts pressure on them. There are two ways to observe bargaining: in person and remotely via Zoom. Let's pack the room, fill the Zoom, and make sure the administration knows we are united and watching! Come for ANY amount of time! Click here to join via Zoom,
🏳️🌈 2023 PORTLAND PRIDE PARADE & FESTIVAL
SATURDAY & SUNDAY: July 15 - 16 (parade July 16), downtown Portland
Come together with Oregon's Labor Movement at the Portland Pride Parade on Sunday, July 16th. Let us unite in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ siblings, showcasing our unwavering commitment to safeguarding the rights of every Oregon worker. As various legislatures pass discriminatory bills and laws targeting the transgender community and LGBTQ+ individuals, our presence as allies is now more crucial than ever. Join us as we march, standing strong and demonstrating Oregon Labor's unwavering support.
Location update: At the parade, we are #87 in the lineup, and will gather on NW Park between Couch and Davis. Marchers should be there by 10:30am on 7/16.
⚕️SEIU LOCAL 49 INFORMATIONAL PICKETS AT KAISER
July 24, 26, 28 at Kaiser Westside, Interstate, and Sunnyside in the Portland area
Local 49 members are taking a stand to let Kaiser know they are UNITED to win their priorities! They are not backing down at the bargaining table, and need you to show Kaiser what UNION SOLIDARITY looks like. They’re ending July with THREE days of action at Westside, Interstate, and Sunnyside.
☀️OREGON AFL-CIO & LERC SUMMER SCHOOL
August 4-6 at the University of Oregon in Eugene
Registration is open for this year’s Summer School, sponsored by the Oregon AFL-CIO and the Labor Education and Research Center, hosted on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene. Whether you are a new member or experienced leader, Summer School has something for you. Join us for a weekend of education, discussion and socializing with 100+ other union members from across the state.
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!
Take Action
➕ SUPPORT NURSING HOME SAFE STAFFING
Right now in the United States, nursing home residents are not getting the quality, dignified care they deserve. Nursing home workers are burning out and leaving the profession, which has created a staffing crisis. President Biden has promised to establish a strong national nursing home staffing standard. Now it’s up to us to ensure that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) follows through. We need your help to make sure our message to HHS is loud and clear. If you are a nursing home worker, have lived in a nursing home, know a loved one who has, or want to improve the state of care in our country, please share your story.
Oregon Labor
July 6, 2023 | Northwest Labor Press
“Roher, 45, is a lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest. She has lived in Oregon since 1993 and has worked as a nurse for more than 20 years. In the last six years, she’s risen up in union leadership roles with OFNHP, serving as a steward, a team lead and liaison to management, the chair of the professional bargaining unit for Kaiser, and the chair of the union’s social justice committee, which she founded.”
July 11, 2023 | KATU
“State workers in Oregon will get a significant cost of living raise in the coming years under a tentative contract agreement reached between their union and the state. Oregon AFSCME, which represents state workers, announced the tentative agreement on Tuesday, calling the contract “historic.””
July 6, 2023 | Northwest Labor Press
“American Federation of Musicians Local 99 is relaunching Fair Trade Music, a campaign to secure fair pay and minimum working standards for gigging musicians in Portland. The union wants freelance performers to help write a “grassroots social contract” for venues in the city.”
Teamsters & UPS Negotiations
July 11, 2023 | Bloomberg
“Concessions that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters won from United Parcel Service Inc. promise to reshape the trucking business, even with the broader labor situation unsolved, and give organized labor a surer foothold at Amazon.com Inc. and other delivery firms that rely on contractors.”
July 10, 2023 | The Hill
“Talks between shipping giant United Parcel Service (UPS) and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters fell apart last week, upping the possibility that the union could strike in a massive walkout when their current contract expires at the end of this month.”
Strikes & Collective Bargaining
July 13, 2023 | The New York Times
“Hollywood’s first industry wide shutdown in 63 years neared certainty, with the union representing 160,000 television and movie actors poised to call a strike as soon as Thursday and join screenwriters who walked off the job in May.”
July 12, 2023 | Wall Street Week
“Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO President discusses labor negotiations and the impact AI will have on workers. She speaks with David Westin on "Wall Street Week Daily."”
July 12, 2023 | CNN Business
“Some very famous faces are once again less than a day away from hitting the picket lines as the union representing about 160,000 actors prepares to possibly go on strike against major studios and streaming services.”
July 12, 2023 | Deadline
“In a joint statement today, unions IATSE, Teamsters, the DGA, and the WGA East and West extended “unwavering support and solidarity” with SAG-AFTRA in the ongoing contract negotiations with producers.”
July 11, 2023 | WILX
“An industry expert believes a strike could be around the corner for United Auto Workers. Talks of a strike are gaining traction as automotive companies look for a new deal for union workers.”
July 10, 2023 | The Washington Post
“First it was nurses. Then graduate students. Then elementary school workers. Now it’s hotel employees, and TV and movie writers. Next up could be actors. Workers in Los Angeles are feeling emboldened as they eye post-pandemic corporate profits and sky-high housing costs, and after a cascade of successful walkouts in Southern California and beyond. They are striking for higher pay and better working conditions, even if it means taking a financial risk and hampering life in the nation’s second most populous city.”
Organizing
July 10, 2023 | Polygon
“Sega of America workers voted “yes” to officially form a union. The National Labor Relations Board counted the group’s mailed-in votes on Monday, with the Allied Employees Guild Improving Sega, or AEGIS, winning the vote.”
Veterans
July 11, 2023 | The Hill
From AFGE National President Everett Kelley: “As an Army veteran who receives health care from the VA, I’m proud that my union, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), represents over 291,000 workers who have dedicated their lives to caring for their fellow veterans and ensuring America meets its obligations to those who have borne the battle.”
Immigration
July 7, 2023 | People’s World
“A new and wide-ranging Florida anti-immigrant law, which not only criminalizes migrants but makes those who help them into state-level racketeers, “instills fear and hate,” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler says. And workers and their allies will do all they can to oppose it, she adds.”
Labor & Technology
July 12, 2023 | Cyberscoop
“Vice President Kamala Harris and other Biden administration officials met Wednesday with civil society, rights and labor leaders to discuss a wide range of impacts of artificial intelligence on consumers and the public.”
July 12, 2023 | The Hill
“We have a sense of urgency that we get in front of this issue in terms of understanding the implications so that we can work as a community of folks — private sector, public sector, nonprofits, government — to do what is in the best interest of the health and safety and well-being of the people of our country.”
Labor & Economy
July 11, 2023 | Capital & Main
“The recently announced agreement on a new contract for hotel workers at the downtown Westin Bonaventure in Los Angeles was only one deal, but it mattered. It has raised hopes among union members for favorable outcomes with the nearly 60 other area hotels where they work — and where they have authorized summer strikes, including the new wave of walkouts that began in the early hours of July 10.”
July 7, 2023 | Spectrum News
“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions increased by nearly 2% to 14.3 million. New York and Hawaii had the highest amount of union memberships ar 20% or higher, a number of states, including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, South Dakota, Idaho, and Utah had the lowest, 4.9% or less. Despite that growth, the BLS sees 10.1% of wage and salary workers who belong to unions as a record low, since so many jobs were added to the economy in 2022.”
The Supreme Court
July 11, 2023 | The American Prospect
“With the end of the 2022-2023 Supreme Court’s term last month, attention should shift to a case on next term’s docket through which the justices may vastly expand their power while also accelerating the continuing collapse of public confidence in the Court.”
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