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.
Oregon Workers on Strike
➡️ UFCW Local 555 Strike at Kaiser
Local 555 members working at Kaiser facilities across Oregon and Southwest Washington are currently engaged in a ULP strike until November 18, 2023. Picketing is happening daily from 6:00am - 6:00pm at the following locations:
➡️ Portland Association of Teachers on Strike
On November 1, 2023 the Portland Association of Teachers went on strike for the first time in district history following ten months of fighting at the bargaining table for a fair contract. Here’s how you can get involved:
Strike Map
The Strike Map can be found at www.oraflcio.org/strikemap. If you know of an upcoming strike or a strike we have not listed, please email it to us at communications@oraflcio.org.
Upcoming Events
📖 University of Oregon Labor Center Collective Bargaining Institute
December 3-8, University Place Hotel, Portland Oregon
Want to be ready for your next round of bargaining? Join union leaders from around the state at the Labor Education and Research Center's Collective Bargaining Institute. In this hands-on program, participants learn all the fundamentals of effective negotiations -- from drafting proposals and contract costing, to managing the bargaining team and finding a settlement. Scholarships are available! Click here for more details and to register online.
🎄81st Annual Children’s Holiday Party - Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter
December 9, 9:00am -12:00pm, Ken Allen AFSCME Labor Canter, 1400 Tandem Ave NE in Salem
Join the Marion-Polk-Yamhill Central Labor Chapter for a free and fun-filled event with cookies, crafts, gift bags, live music and the one and only Caesar the No Drama Llama.
Take Action
🪥 Support Multnomah County Dentists
Multnomah County Dentists stand united, asking for the opportunity to provide patients meaningful care, in an environment that allows enough time to do the work. Click here to take action today and stand with AFSCME-represented dentists at Multnomah County!
Oregon Labor
November 16, 2023 | Northwest Labor Press
From Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor: “Throughout history, university campuses have been a hotbed for student organizing and progressive action, from the anti-war and civil rights movements to international campaigns like the anti-sweatshop movement. And that has often included labor action, where workers on campuses stand together to form unions and fight for their rights as workers. In fact, Oregon’s public university system is already one of the most highly unionized in the country thanks to the bravery and determination of workers — from graduate employees to faculty members to classified staff — and the investment and support from the labor movement.”
November 15, 2023 | OPB
“Hundreds of Portland Public Schools employees continue to work in school buildings and serve students as the district’s first-ever teachers strike stretches into its third week. Many are helping on picket lines while their own contract tensions grow.”
November 14, 2023 | OPB
“Across the U.S., undergraduate student workers at colleges and universities are unionizing. Students at the University of Oregon in Eugene have formed one of the first unions for mostly undergraduate student workers at a public college or university. Last week, the Oregon Employment Relations Board certified the results of the unionization vote which was held on the UO campus last month.”
November 13, 2023 | Missoula Current
“More than 350 apple, pear and cherry packers at three facilities in Washington and Oregon will decide this week whether to unionize. It’s among the first and largest unionization efforts among fruit packers in the region in years, according to Kristina Storm, director of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000, the union that employees will consider joining. It follows more than three years of organizing by mostly Latina women who have worked for decades for the Washington-based company Mount Adams Fruit.”
November 6, 2023 | Oregon Capital Insider
“Unions and progressive advocacy groups that advocated for a new voter-approved law to punish lawmakers for walkouts are weighing in on a lawsuit by a group of Republican senators that challenges how the secretary of state interpreted the law. Supporters of the new law filed two amicus, or friend of the court, briefs urging the Oregon Supreme Court to uphold Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade’s ruling that a handful of Republican senators who missed more than 10 days of work are ineligible to run for reelection. If the court upholds the law, one-third of the Senate will be ineligible to run for reelection.”
Strikes
November 15, 2023 | KRCW
“The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) represents tens of thousands of below-the-line workers, including grips, sound mixers, animators, set builders, and more. IATSE’s worker contract is set to expire in July and members are pushing for a better work agreement.”
November 14, 2023 | The Hollywood Reporter
“After the union’s latest labor contract expired on June 30, Unite Here Local 11 has staged rolling strikes, which have hit major hospitality venues at unexpected times. With the fight the union has sought major pay bumps for around 15,000 affected members — including dishwashers, housekeepers and cooks — to account for rising L.A.-area housing expenses.”
November 14, 2023 | People’s World
“How do you choose between going to the hospital for needed regular medical treatment for a chronic condition and buying food for yourself and your family? That’s the dilemma Katherine Charles, a bilingual call center worker in Tampa, Fla., for a top federal contractor, Maximus, faces when she needs health care. “It’s a struggle,” Charles said during a Zoom press call with other workers, Communications Workers President Claude Cummings, and Georgia voting rights activist Stacey Abrams, a native with a load of family members in Hattiesburg, Miss., site of one of the call centers.”
November 11, 2023 | Michigan Advance
“Detroit casino workers are continuing their strike against three operators, hopeful that they’ll be able to secure a big win like the UAW has in tentative deals with domestic automakers. It’s day 26 for the strike. On Oct. 17, unionized casino workers at MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino, and Hollywood Casino at Greektown launched a strike affecting 3,700 casino workers, including dealers, cleaning staff, food and beverage workers, valets, engineers, and more.”
November 9, 2023 | CBS News
“The union representing film and television actors has struck a tentative deal with entertainment industry studios on a new labor contract, SAG-AFTRA announced Wednesday, moving the sides closer to ending what has been a contentious nearly four-month strike. "In a unanimous vote this afternoon, the SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP bringing an end to the 118 day strike," the union said Wednesday in a statement.”
Federal Government Shutdown
November 13, 2023 | The Washington Post
“There are a lot of long-term problems that are compounding, one after another, that our members are not able to dig out of,” said Marlene Patrick-Cooper, president of UNITE HERE, the union that represents Capitol Hill hospitality workers. “Any small amount of missed wages can lead to further crisis.”
Organizing & Building Power
November 15, 2023 | Reuters
“REI, the camping and outdoor sports equipment retailer, was accused on Wednesday of dozens of violations of U.S. labor law at eight retail stores that have unionized since last year. Workers at stores in New York, California, Chicago and Boston, among others, filed a total of 80 complaints with the U.S. National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seeking to force the company to bargain with their unions.”
November 14, 2023 | The Salt Lake Tribune
“Health care workers across the University of Utah’s hospitals and clinics have unionized — a move that comes, representatives say, as employees have been sacrificing their own health to take care of patients in a system that they feel is critically understaffed. Utah Health Workers United (UHWU) Local 7765 will be the first of its kind in the state: the only union directly tied to a specific health care system. Its members are calling for higher and safer staffing ratios per patient, as well as wage increases.”
November 14, 2023 | Huffington Post
“Ever since the union Workers United began organizing Starbucks stores in late 2021, the company has denied it threatened or retaliated against union supporters like Clark. But a growing body of decisions by NLRB judges and board members is undermining the company’s public insistence that it has run a clean campaign against the union.”
November 13, 2023 | PBS
“A new federal rule that goes into effect next month could make it easier for millions of workers to form unions at big companies like McDonald’s. But it’s already facing significant pushback from businesses and some members of Congress. The rule — announced late last month by the National Labor Relations Board — sets new standards for determining when two companies should be considered “joint employers” under the National Labor Relations Act.”
Raising Wages
November 13, 2023 | Associated Press
“South Korean automaker Hyundai has joined Honda and Toyota in raising factory worker wages after the United Auto Workers union reached new contract agreements with Detroit automakers.”
Politics
November 16, 2023 | AFL-CIO
Statement from AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler: “We applaud President Biden’s announcement today of the Presidential Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally, a framework that will reshape how U.S. government agencies conduct international diplomacy by putting workers’ rights and standards at the center.”
What is the latest with Uber unionizing in Oregon? I’m seeing gaming of surge pricing occurring to raise the surge prices during peak times, clearly an indication that higher wages are desperately wanted. What also is being said about women drivers finding clean adequate functioning restrooms at sites Uber identifies as offering them, but often don’t. It’s humiliating to be desperately needing to pee and begging staff for access to the supposedly closed restroom, especially later in the night. McDonald’s use to be open 24 hours with open restrooms, but homeless drug users have closed those locations. Fast food has evolved to drive thru only, no more restrooms. 7- elevens aren’t equipped with stress withstanding restrooms, so they are ofte…