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
✊ RALLY AT THE STATE CAPITOL
June 8 at the Oregon State Capitol Building - 12:00 - 2:00pm
Join SEIU Local 503 at the State Capitol to rally on June 8th to fight for real wage increases, workplace safety, manageable workloads, and to end the state workforce crisis! Gather to show support for the Local 503 bargaining team and demand the State funds our contract and the Department of Administrative Services support their workforce. Click here to register for the rally.
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
⚠️ 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. Unfortunately, thirteen Senators are blocking policies they don’t like by walking off the job and preventing the legislature from functioning. Our policies and budgets can’t pass until all the lawmakers who are skipping work show up! Enough is enough. The stakes are too high for our communities. They must come back to work.
🏛️ DON’T DEFAULT ON WORKING PEOPLE
We have come too far to let Speaker McCarthy's selfishness take away our healthcare, climate protections, and investments into good union jobs.Join us and tell Congress: #DontDefault on working people! Click here to take action.
Oregon Labor
May 22, 2023 | OPB
“The union representing nurses at St. Charles Health System in Bend announced Monday that they have authorized a strike, possibly setting up the hospital’s first nurses strike in more than 40 years. Nurses at the hospital — the largest employer in Central Oregon — are preparing for a strike due to what they say is chronic understaffing that endangers patients and is overworking staff.”
May 22, 2023 | KTVZ
““Strikes are always a last resort, never a first resort. But the unsafe working conditions at St. Charles Medical Center have become so serious, and the lack of action from management so glaring, that the nurses have been forced to issue a code red,” said Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), ONA’s national union.”
May 23, 2023 | Bike Portland
“Part of the reason City of Portland bureau leaders were dismayed by the eleventh-hour move from Mayor Ted Wheeler to freeze planned fee increases was because they needed the money to pay workers. And the memories of the strike back in February is still fresh in their minds.Now the same union that organized a four-day work stoppage is on the offensive once again. Laborers Local 483 (an affiliate of Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA)), says Wheeler’s move to reduce already-planned and budgeted for fee increases from the bureau of transportation, water and environmental services “threaten to layoff dozens of union-represented workers.””
May 10, 2023 | The Lund Report
“Carson is one of many research workers at OHSU who say it’s time for their ranks —1,600 in number — to organize. Calling themselves Research Workers United, they cite lagging pay, uncertain working conditions and a lack of voice for workers. Working with Council 75 of the American Federation of State, Council and Municipal Employees, the group is now protesting layoffs that they say could have been prevented had there been a union.”
Organizing
May 24, 2023 | In These Times
“After a bruising three-year fight, workers at school bus manufacturer Blue Bird in Fort Valley, Georgia, voted May 12 to join United Steelworkers (USW) Local 697.”
May 22, 2023 | The New York Times
““It took us time to realize they weren’t firing us just because of time and attendance,” said Ms. Wyatt, who is part of a charge filed with the National Labor Relations Board in March accusing Apple of unfair labor practices. A pattern of similar worker accusations — and corporate denials — has arisen at Starbucks, Trader Joe’s and REI as retail workers have sought to form unions in the past two years. Initially, the employers countered the organizing campaigns with criticism of unions and other means of dissuasion.”
College Athletes
May 24, 2023 | People’s World
“The big business of college sports is back in federal court again. And this time it’s over the right of the athletes to organize. That’s because the National Labor Relations Board’s top enforcement official, General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, sued the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Pac-12 conference, and several colleges to court in federal court in Los Angeles, seeking approval of its stand that college athletes are “employees” and have the right to organize under labor law.”
Education
May 21, 2023 | American Federation of Teachers
By Randi Weingarten, President, AFT: “Nowadays I am the president of a union, but I am harking back to my years as a civics teacher as I write this column. Governors and education officials in Florida and other states are doing exactly what extremists baselessly accuse educators of doing—imposing their ideological agenda on public schools, rewriting history, stifling free expression and creating intolerance. Such threats are increasing throughout the country, but the education culture wars in Florida are especially dangerous, and they are growing along with its governor’s political ambitions.”
Rosie the Riveter
May 24, 2023 | Valley Times
“Much like with the men who fought in World War II, the women who contributed to the war effort stateside by helping build airplanes, tanks, jeeps and other military equipment, as depicted by Rosie the Riveter in her iconic “We Can Do It” poster, should be cherished. Not too many of their segment of “The Greatest Generation” are still with us. Each year, people gather for the American Rosie the Riveter Association’s Rosie Convention, including some “Rosies.” Thanks to the efforts of Oregonians Yvonne Fasold and Luella Larsen, the convention landed in Portland during the same weekend (June 8-11) of the Grand Floral Parade on Saturday, June 10. The big parade always features a group of women IBEW Local 48 electricians representing Rosie the Riveter.”
Bargaining
May 23, 2023 | The New York Times
“The New York Times reached a deal on Tuesday for a new contract with the union representing the majority of its newsroom employees, ending more than two years of contentious negotiations that included a 24-hour strike. The agreement, if ratified, will give union members immediate salary increases of up to 12.5 percent to cover the last two years and 2023, and will raise the required minimum salary to $65,000, up from about $37,500. The previous contract expired in March 2021, and union members have not received contractual raises since 2020. The union negotiating the deal, which is part of the NewsGuild of New York, represents nearly 1,500 employees in the newsroom, advertising and other areas of the company. More than 1,800 people work in The Times’s newsroom.”
Writers’ Strike
“Your Fight Is Our Fight”: John Leguizamo, Busy Philipps, Tony Kushner and Unions Show Solidarity With WGA
May 23, 2023 | The Hollywood Reporter
“John Leguizamo, Busy Philipps, Tony Kushner, Neil Gaiman, Al Franken and Wanda Sykes were among those who took to the stage during WGA East’s Rally at 30 Rockefeller Center on Tuesday, appearing alongside union leaders from SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, Actor’s Equity and more pledging that “all of labor stands behind the writers.””
May 22, 2023 | More Perfect Union
“More than 70 percent of Americans—including a clear majority of Trump supporters—support the Writers Guild of America’s ongoing strike for better pay, working conditions, and job security, according to a new poll commissioned by More Perfect Union via Blue Rose Research.”
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