The Oregon Labor Dispatch: May 15, 2025
- May 20
- 9 min read
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.
💥2025 Oregon Labor Organizing Summit
June 17 in Portland
We know that when unions are strong, Oregon is strong. With so much uncertainty in the world today, one thing remains certain: Unions are the most effective means for workers to gain power on the job and in our communities to demand the dignity and respect we all deserve. That’s why on June 17, 2025 the Oregon AFL-CIO is hosting the 2025 Oregon Labor Organizing Summit in Portland.
This one-of-a-kind event will feature national speakers, like keynote speaker AFA-CWA President Sara Nelson and LaborLab Executive Director Bob Funk, organizing experts, and a host of workshops.
This event is limited to union members, leaders, and staff of labor organizations.
🗓️ UPCOMING EVENTS
Oregon Labor Candidate School: Solidarity Social
May 22 in Salem
Join us on May 22nd at the Salem AFSCME Office for our Spring Solidarity Social. Exhibits from the AFSCME Labor History Museum will be on display, and special guest speakers will be announced as we get closer. Tickets are $20 to help offset the cost of food and beverages.
The Dance to Wake Up the Earth: Teach In on May Day and Our Histories of Resistance
May 27 in Portland
Join AFT-Oregon’s Politics, Policy, Legislation, and Solidarity (PPLS) Council for an evening of political education, community, and reflection. We'll share dinner together before diving into a panel discussion and Q&A with Ben Cushing, President of PCCFFAP, and Andrea Haverkamp, AFT-Oregon Political and Legislative Organizer. Together, we’ll explore the history of general strikes, the radical roots of May Day, and how these legacies inform our movements today.
Fund Oregon Now: Rally to Invest in Our Future
June 5 in Salem
Join SEIU 503 at the State Capitol to rally on June 5th from 12:00pm - 2:00pm to fight for a state budget that reflects Oregon's values, protects essential services and invests in Oregon workers. Oregonians depend on state services to make ends meet, to care for and educate children, to maintain affordable and quality healthcare and so much more. We know that the time is now to act and assure that we continue to fund important services in our state, no matter what the federal government says!
Summer Institute for Union Women
June 22-26 in Burnaby, Canada
SIUW is a comprehensive leadership institute with skills-building workshops, cultural activities and education sessions designed to expand our understanding of solidarity and rebuild connections across our region. This event is for all cis and trans women, non-binary, queer, questioning, and those who are comfortable in a space that centers our experiences. The fee is $940.Click here to register
Portland Pride Festival 2025
July 19 & 20 in Portland
Join Oregon’s Labor Movement at Portland’s Pride Waterfront Festival and Parade. The Oregon AFL-CIO and affiliates will have a booth at Pride and will march in the parade on Sunday.
📣 TAKE ACTION
URGENT: Tell Your Representative to Vote Yes on SB 916
Senate Bill 916 is a landmark piece of legislation designed to extend unemployment benefits to striking workers. The bill passed the Oregon Senate on March 20, but we have work to do to ensure it reaches Governor Kotek’s desk to be signed into law.
Tell Congress No Cuts to Medicaid
Right now, Congress is considering a reckless budget package that would make the 2017 tax giveaway to billionaires and giant corporations permanent, and expand the tax cuts for the rich by cutting $1.5 trillion from essential programs like Medicaid.
Tell Congress to Fund the Arts
Congress needs to hear from you as it makes decisions about next year’s funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Contact your Representative today to ask that they join the bipartisan group of House members supporting increased funding for the NEA and NEH in FY26.
As AFSCME members and members of the broader Portland community, we have deep concerns with the City’s recent announcement that the contract for Multnomah Safe Rest Village (MSRV) will be transferred from Sunstone Way, a union employer, to Urban Alchemy, a non-union employer with concerning practices as an employer and service provider.
Please take a few minutes to send a pre-written letter to your representative and senator: Tell them to demand SMART apprentice Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia's return to the United States so he can receive due process!
Donate now to the AFGE Federal Employee Defense Fund Help fund the fight against the attacks on America’s civil servants!
🛠️ RESOURCES
The Oregon AFL-CIO’s compendium of resources to address federal threats against workers from immigration to LGBTQIA+ rights.
📖 MUST READ
May 8, 2025 | The Daily Emerald
Following a nine-day strike, the University of Oregon Student Workers union has reached a tentative agreement with UO administration. UOSW members will now move to a ratification vote.
🏔️ OREGON LABOR
May 13, 2025 | OPB
Oregon is on the cusp of making it illegal for employers to ask for a person’s age in the beginning stages of applying for a job. Lawmakers in both legislative chambers have passed House Bill 3187, which proponents say will help curb age discrimination.
🏛️POLITICS
May 8, 2025 | The Colorado Sun
Gov. Jared Polis confirmed Thursday that he plans to veto a bill passed by Democrats in the legislature this year that would rewrite the Colorado Labor Peace Act. Senate Bill 5 is a priority for the Colorado labor movement and Polis’ decision to nix the measure is sure to inflame the unfavorable view of the governor already held by unions. The measure would abolish a requirement in the Colorado Labor Peace Act that 75% of workers at a company sign off before unions can negotiate with businesses over union security. That’s after a majority of workers vote to unionize.
May 8, 2025 | The Washington Post
Two West Virginia coal miners with black lung disease testified before a federal judge on Wednesday during a hearing on the Trump administration’s decision to effectively shutter a program that provides free screenings to coal miners, a move advocates have said threatens to bring more disease and death to coal-dependent communities across Appalachia.
May 12, 2025 | Reuters
Republicans in the U.S. Congress on Monday sought to advance elements of their sweeping budget package that would cut taxes and tighten healthcare benefits for the poor, though they are still at odds over many details of their plan. Republicans in the House of Representatives released draft legislation over the weekend that for the first time laid out specifics of the plan, which would be the centerpiece of President Donald Trump's domestic agenda.
⚠️FEDERAL ATTACKS
May 13, 2025 | The Washington Post
The federal government has fully paid for benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program since it was created in 1939 as a way to fight food insecurity amid the Great Depression. But now, Republicans in Congress are looking into forcing states to pay for 5 to 25 percent of SNAP funding in a move experts warn could force state governments to remove individuals from the food assistance program, leave local budgets with massive shortfalls, and hurt the food producers and retailers that serve them.
May 9, 2025 | AP
The Trump administration must halt much of its dramatic downsizing of the federal workforce, a California judge ordered Friday. Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco issued the emergency order in a lawsuit filed last week by labor unions and cities, one of multiple legal challenges to Republican President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of a federal government he calls bloated and expensive.
May 10, 2025 | CNN
After months of contending with the Trump administration’s multi-pronged effort to downsize the federal workforce, government employees are now facing the possibility of another major change that could push even more of them out the door. House Republicans are looking to make several big adjustments to federal workers’ retirement benefits to help pay for the party’s sweeping tax and spending cuts package. The House Oversight Committee last week approved a plan that would squeeze $50 billion in savings out of the retirement system over the next decade.
May 8, 2025 | Reuters
Cameron Hamilton, the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been ousted from his position by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, a day after he told lawmakers in a hearing that he did not support eliminating his agency. The leadership change comes at a time when the agency, which is in charge of coordinating the federal government's response to disasters, is helping states and local communities prepare for the onset of hurricane season on June 1.
May 8, 2025 | WVPE
Nicole Cantello is president of the union that represents the regional EPA office, American Federation of Government Employees Local 704. She said Indiana was also supposed to receive nearly $24 million in grants from the environmental justice program. That money is earmarked for lead pipe replacements and projects to make cities and homeowners more resilient to things like flooding.
🚨ATTACKS ON IMMIGRANTS
May 10, 2025 | The New York Times
Rumeysa Ozturk returned to Massachusetts on Saturday evening, eyes welling with joy and gratitude at the end of her six-week odyssey in federal custody, a case that stirred outrage over President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
May 12, 2025 | The New York Times
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, a union that represents flight attendants at 20 airlines, including Avelo, raised concerns. The union noted that immigrants being deported by the Trump administration had been placed in restraints, which can make flight attendants’ jobs much more difficult.
May 14, 2025 | Politico
Democrats on Wednesday pressed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on what her agency is doing to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national who was mistakenly sent to El Salvador, as well as the case of two American children who were recently deported by the Trump administration.
🫱🏼🫲🏽 THE LABOR MOVEMENT
May 12, 2025 | Workday Magazine
Just one week after taking office, President Donald Trump fired Jennifer Abruzzo, general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board. Abruzzo led the agency with a bold, worker-centered interpretation of the Act, resulting in wins for workers like expanded financial remedies for illegally fired workers, and broader protections for workers engaging in protected concerted activity, regardless of their immigration status.
📣 STRIKES & COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
May 14, 2025 | AP
Under the previous dress code, baristas could wear a broader range of dark colors and patterned shirts. Starbucks said the new rules would make its green aprons stand out and create a sense of familiarity for customers as it tries to establish a warmer, more welcoming feeling in its stores. But Starbucks Workers United, the union that represents workers at 570 of Starbucks’ 10,000 company-owned U.S. stores, said the dress code should be subject to collective bargaining.
📊 THE ECONOMY
May 9, 2025 | The Washington Post
The D.C. region’s economy is teetering on the edge of a painful slump, experts warn, as the Trump administration’s spending cuts, including the elimination of thousands of federal jobs, take their toll on an area that was already struggling to recover from the impacts of the pandemic.
👥 ORGANIZING
May 12, 2025 | Game Developer
Another group of developers has unionized at Blizzard Entertainment. On Friday May 9, 2025, the Communication Workers of America announced the formation of the Overwatch Gamemakers Guild-CWA, a nearly 200-person "wall-to-wall" union representing developers working on Blizzard's Overwatch series.
🖼️ GRAPHICS TO SHARE
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