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
➡️ Yamhill County Employees to Strike 11/3 at 10:00am
The Yamhill County Employees Association (YCEA), AFSCME Local 1422, will strike tomorrow, November 3, 2023 at 10:00am in McMinnville. YCEA is a union of over 400 workers who provide vital services in Yamhill County, but many of them cannot afford to live in the area and even qualify for public assistance because their wages are so low. Join them at the strike kickoff tomorrow, or on Saturday in McMinnville.
Strike Kickoff: Friday, November 3 at 10:00am Corner of NE 5th st. and NE Evans Street, McMinnville (map)
If you’re unable to attend on Friday, YCEA will be picketing on Saturday, November 4 as well beginning at noon at the same location.
The strike will continue until workers reach a tentative agreement, stay tuned for more information about the strike.
➡️ 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:
➡️ 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:
➡️ IUOE Local 701 Members on Strike in Corvallis
IUOE Local 701 members employed by a Republic Services subsidiary at the Coffin Butte landfill near Corvallis have been on strike since September 11, 2023. They are picketing outside of the Coffin Butte landfill outside of Corvallis from 5:30am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday.
Strike Map
We’ve added a new section to the Oregon AFL-CIO website where the Strike Map can be found and will be updated as strikes end and new strikes begin. Head to www.oraflcio.org/strikemap to see and download the latest map.
Upcoming Events
🏤 No Cuts, No Closures: Save the Post Office
Monday, November 6, 2023 | 12:00pm - 1:00pm | East Portland Post Office: 1020 SE 7th Ave in Portland
Stand with APWU Local 128 to protest a huge transformation of Oregon's Postal Service which is planned to begin in 2024. Postal workers’ jobs are on the line - let’s rally and demand no more cuts to our Postal Service! Click here to learn more about the proposed changes.
📖 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.
Oregon Labor
November 2, 2023 | The Washington Post
“The Portland Association of Teachers began its strike Wednesday, closing all 81 of the city's public schools.”
November 1, 2023 | OPB
“The Portland Association of Teachers formally began their strike Wednesday morning. This is the first teachers’ strike in the history of Oregon’s largest school district. Actions are taking place across the city.”
November 1, 2023 | Willamette Week
“The aides who staff Oregon’s 90 lawmakers (60 in the House, 30 in the Senate) have voted to accept a contract that will make Oregon’s legislative staff the first in the nation to unionize.”
November 1, 2023 | Becker’s Hospital Review
“Members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 began a weekslong strike Nov. 1 at five Kaiser Permanente locations in Washington and Oregon. The union represents hundreds of Kaiser imaging technicians, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting. Kaiser is an Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit organization with locations in Georgia, Hawaii, California, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Oregon.”
October 30, 2023 | Becker’s Hospital Review
“Kaiser Permanente Washington and SEIU Healthcare 1199NW have reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract. The four-year agreement, reached Oct. 30, covers about 3,000 workers at 36 Kaiser facilities across Washington state, a union representative said.”
October 31, 2023 | The Stand
“On Saturday, Oct. 28, the 1,300 PeaceHealth workers who went on strike on Oct. 23 returned to work. These workers had organized a five-day Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike to protest actions by management that the union says were illegal and violated the union rights of their workers.”
October 26, 2023 | The Columbian
“Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, a national union that represents teachers, federal, state and local government employees and other health care professionals, spoke at Thursday afternoon’s rally outside the hospital at 92nd Avenue and Mill Plain Boulevard in central Vancouver.”
UAW Tentative Agreements
October 31, 2023 | The New York Times
“Laying out a tentative contract agreement to end a six-week wave of walkouts at Ford Motor, the United Automobile Workers president made an unusual pitch to other labor unions. “We invite unions around the country to align your contract expirations with our own,” the U.A.W. leader, Shawn Fain, said Sunday night. “If we’re going to truly take on the billionaire class and rebuild the economy so that it starts to work for the benefit of the many and not the few,” Mr. Fain added, “then it’s important that we not only strike, but that we strike together.””
October 30, 2023 | KEZI
“The United Auto Workers union says it reached a tentative contract with General Motors, the last of the Detroit three automakers to agree to a deal.”
October 28, 2023 | The New York Times
“The United Automobile Workers union announced on Saturday that it had reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract with Stellantis, the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep and Ram. The agreement came three days after the union and Ford Motor announced a tentative agreement on a new contract.”
National Strikes
November 1, 2023 | KTLA
“In a bit of serendipity, the Hollywood actors’ strike against television and movie producers hit its 111th day on Wednesday, Nov. 1, which is 11/1 when written numerically. To celebrate the coincidence, SAG-AFTRA encouraged members to join union officials at Disney Studios in Burbank ahead of more negotiations later Wednesday. Tuesday was “productive,” negotiation insiders told Variety, and there’s “cautious optimism” about a deal being reached.”
November 1, 2023 | The Messenger
“As the United Auto Workers' labor stoppages come to a close with pending contracts at the Detroit Three automakers, labor unions are showing no signs of slowing down.”
October 31, 2023 | KTNV
“Thousands of Culinary Union members are still without a contract following yet another round of bargaining sessions with major resort companies. In the last week, the Culinary Union met with MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment and Wynn Resorts. Despite those meetings and months of back and forth there is still no contract.”
October 30, 2023 | Reuters
“Tech workers at the New York Times (NYT.N) plan to strike for half a day on Monday, accusing the publisher of attempting to unilaterally force them back to the office. The stoppage of work will start at 1 p.m. ET and the nearly 700 workers will hold demonstrations on Zoom and outside the company's headquarters in Manhattan, where some will wear Halloween costumes, said the Times Tech Guild (TTG).”
October 30, 2023 | WGRZ
“Workers at Buffalo's Milk-Bone plant will return to work after their three-year-contract was ratified. 40 repair and maintenance workers had been on strike since October 16, and demanded better wages to meet the rise in inflation. Richard W. Dahn, BR, union rep for the International Association of Machinists (IAM) that represents the workers said the new deal includes raises of 8.5%, 3.5% and 2.0% in each of the three years, plus a $2,500 signing bonus.”
October 28, 2023 | NPR
“So far in 2023, there have been 22 major work stoppages, meaning strikes involving at least 1,000 workers, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: 17 of those strikes have been at companies, making it the largest number of strikes in the private sector since 2011.”
National Politics
October 30, 2023 | Forward Kentucky
“House Republicans, who unanimously elected Johnson, are all abuzz about getting back “to ‘the business of legislating,’” AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said in a statement. But working folks, she added, “have a simple question: Legislating for whom?” The headline atop the statement answers the query: “AFL-CIO: Speaker Mike Johnson Does Not Stand with Workers.””
October 20, 2023 | AFSCME
“...AFSCME supports a new rule by the Biden administration that would establish a federal floor for staffing levels to prevent owners of nursing homes – both public and private – from slashing staffing to unsafe levels. The proposal would require every nursing home facility in the nation to have a registered nurse on-site 24/7, as well as a certain minimum number of registered nurses and nurse aides to provide routine care.”
Labor & Technology
October 31, 2023 | CFODive
“The Labor Department is tasked with leading the development of artificial intelligence guidelines for employers under a sweeping executive order signed by President Joe Biden on Monday.”
October 30, 2023 | AFL-CIO
“Today, the Biden–Harris administration reaffirmed its commitment to America’s workers through a pioneering executive order on artificial intelligence (AI). The AFL-CIO applauds the centrality of workers’ rights and values within this order—including the right to collectively bargain—while acknowledging there is much ground to cover in enshrining accountability, transparency and safety as bedrocks of AI.”
Workers’ Rights
November 2, 2023 | The Guardian
“The UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights has called on the CEOs of Amazon, Walmart and DoorDash and the US government to address allegations that top US corporations pay such low wages that they trap workers in poverty, forcing them to rely on government-assistance programs to survive.”
Organizing
November 1, 2023 | Center for American Progress
“Unions and collective bargaining increase workers’ democratic voice; raise wages and build wealth; and improve conditions for all workers. It should be no surprise that nearly 70 percent of Americans support unions, and support is especially high among younger generations. Despite the fact that workers want and need unions, decades of weakened labor law has eroded workers’ ability to form unions and engage in collective bargaining. Yet, states have significant authority to build power for working people.”
November 1, 2023 | People’s World
“That means it should be easier for workers to organize and bargain without being bounced from pillar to post when it comes to whom to bargain with or complain about. Using that same “basic common sense” explanation, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler called the new rule “an important win” for workers. “The point of the rule is simple—when workers negotiate for fair wages and working conditions, companies shouldn’t be able to hide behind a subcontractor or staffing agency to deny us what we’ve rightfully earned.”
October 31, 2023 | News 3
“Labor leaders and the Las Vegas Grand Prix have reached an agreement that will let workers for the Formula One race explore unionizing.The Culinary Union, the Grand Prix and Liberty Media Corporation announced Tuesday that they have entered into a card check neutrality agreement.”
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