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
🏳️🌈 2023 PORTLAND PRIDE PARADE & FESTIVAL
July 15 - 16 (parade July 16), downtown Portland
Join Oregon's Labor Movement for the Portland Pride Parade on Sunday, July 16, as we march in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ siblings and demonstrate our commitment to defending the rights of all Oregon workers. With legislatures across the country passing anti-trans bills and laws hostile to the LGBTQ+ community, it's more important than ever that Oregon Labor shows our unwavering support as allies.
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
📢 TELL LAWMAKERS: INVEST IN HOMELESSNESS PREVENTION
Our state's historic revenue levels present a unique opportunity to invest in reducing homelessness and displacement. With so many Oregonians at risk of homelessness due to financial hardships, we must take immediate action. Click here to contact your legislators.
⚠️ END THE WALKOUT & PASS AN EQUITABLE STATE BUDGET State lawmakers just learned there is $1.9 billion more revenue than expected for our State’s budget. That means there is more money than ever available to invest in our communities. It is time for the legislature to invest in the things Oregonians need to have a fair shot: housing, child care, health care, schools, wildfire and drought relief, access to food, a strong public workforce, and more. But we can’t do that unless the walkout ends, and the State Senate has a quorum. Click here to take action.
Pride Month
June 1, 2023 | AFL-CIO
“The labor movement is intersectional. This means we fight for all working people—no matter the gender, race, ethnicity or any other identity. Those identities intersect with your own identity as a worker, as a parent, as a sibling.”
Oregon Labor
June 8, 2023 | Oregon Nurses Association
“Nurses at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend successfully reached a tentative agreement with hospital management early this morning after more than 40 hours of negotiations over the last two days, including working with a federal mediator. The nearly 1,000 nurses are represented by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA).”
June 6, 2023 | OPB
“Nurses and clinicians who work for Providence Health in Portland and Seaside authorized plans over the weekend to move forward with a strike. Around 1,800 health care workers completed voting for three separate strikes on Sunday. In a statement, the health care workers’ union said the votes for all three strikes were “near unanimous,” though the organization did not release specifics.”
June 2, 2023 | Northwest Labor Press
“Workers at nonprofit New Avenues for Youth voted 69 to 12 to join Oregon AFSCME in mail ballots counted May 16. New Avenues For Youth provides meals, rest areas, showers, and internet access to homeless young people, as well as help with getting transitional housing or applying for work.”
Oregon Senate Walkout
June 7, 2023 | Central Oregon Daily News
“Bend Mayor Melanie Kebler has sent a letter to Sen. Tim Knopp of Bend, urging him and Republicans in the Oregon Senate to end their walkout that has lasted more than a month. She says the city is at risk of losing critical funding.”
Drug treatment, wildfire response and new jobs: Oregon Democrats cite bills at risk amid GOP walkout
June 7, 2023 | Associated Press
“Oregon Democratic lawmakers stood on the steps of the state Capitol Tuesday and implored Republicans, who have been boycotting the Senate, to return and vote on a number of bipartisan bills that are at risk of dying because of a political standoff that has now lasted a month.”
June 5, 2023 | The Oregonian
“A handful of Senate Republicans, in the fifth week of their walkout and facing the looming threat of hundreds of dollars in fines, found their way back to a cramped hearing room in the state Capitol on Thursday evening.”
Remembering Bill Spriggs
June 7, 2023 | Forbes
“The economics profession and the progressive policy world is dealing with the shocking news that Bill Spriggs, Chief Economist at the AFL-CIO and former chair of the Howard University Economics Department, has passed away at the age of 68. We’ve lost a great economist and a champion for Black equality, and for all working people. At his death, Bill was both teaching at Howard and serving as Chief Economist at the AFL-CIO, combining his work on racial justice with his advocacy for all working people. Right up until his untimely death, he was advocating for racial and economic justice—in written work, Congressional testimony, media appearances, and public advocacy.”
Entertainment Strikes
June 7, 2023 | Axios
“This fall might be a great time to catch up on your streaming list — Hollywood has one union on strike, and studios are facing more labor strife that could result in further shutdowns this summer.”
June 7, 2023 | The Hollywood Reporter
“Three weeks and two days. Starting Wednesday, that’s how long SAG-AFTRA will have to negotiate a set of agreements that affect a vast swath of union performers working in film and television — about 160,000 members, from actors to dancers to stunt performers — before those current contracts expire June 30.”
June 5, 2023 | CNN Business
“Members of the union representing television and film actors have voted to authorize a strike against major studios if a new contract isn’t reached by the time their current deal ends on June 30.”
June 5, 2023 | The New York Times
“Last month, in an interview about Warner Bros. Discovery’s $50 million streaming profit in the first quarter of 2023, the company’s chief executive, David Zaslav, told CNBC that he believed the Writers Guild of America strike would ultimately end because of “a love for the business and a love for working.””
Organizing
June 7, 2023 | Slate
“Something unusual happened in Vermont last week. The flagship location of Ben & Jerry’s in Burlington recognized the Scoopers United union after almost all 39 workers voted in favor of it. During the organizing campaign, no workers were fired for supporting the union.”
Workers at Barnes & Noble in Manhattan's Union Square vote to unionize, continuing trend
June 7. 2023 | Spectrum News
“Workers at the Barnes & Noble in Manhattan's Union Square, one of the retail chain's signature stores and home to its corporate offices, have voted to unionize. They join employees at a handful of other Barnes & Noble stores in the Northeast who have affiliated with unions in recent weeks, following a wave of union activity over the past few years at independent booksellers.”
Workplace Safety
June 7, 2023 | Healthcare Finance
“A new survey from Premier has found that 40% of healthcare workers have experienced at least one incident of workplace violence within the past two years, with the violence occuring most frequently among nursing staff at the hands of men between 35-65.”
Voting Rights
June 8, 2023 | AFL-CIO
“The South is ground zero in the fight to protect the voting rights of millions of working people, and today the U.S. Supreme Court made the right decision to uphold critical safeguards in the Voting Rights Act that protect communities of color.”
Newsroom Activism
June 5, 2023 | The New York TImes
“Hundreds of journalists for Gannett, the country’s largest newspaper chain, walked off the job on Monday, accusing the company’s chief executive of decimating its local newsrooms. The walkout was the biggest labor action in Gannett’s century-old history, the union representing the journalists said.”
June 5, 2023 | MarketWatch
“Shares of publisher Gannett Co. were trading lower on the New York Stock Exchange Monday, following news that journalists from newsrooms across the company staged a walkout on the day of the shareholder meeting.”
Union Busting
June 2, 2023 | CNN Business
“An Amazon worker who helped lead a milestone organizing effort to form what would have been the company’s first US union at a warehouse in Alabama said she has been fired by the e-commerce giant. Jennifer Bates became the face of the effort to unionize an Amazon facility in Bessemer, Alabama, back in 2021 when she testified before lawmakers about her “grueling” experience working at the company.”
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