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.
Fred Meyer Boycott
Fred Meyer Workers are Calling a Boycott
The strike is over but the fight for a fair contract continues. UFCW Local 555 Fred Meyer workers are asking the community to shop somewhere else. Don’t shop at Fred Meyer until a fair agreement is reached and Fred Meyer’s admitted price gouging has stopped.
Labor 2024 Events
Find more Labor 2024 events and volunteer opportunities on our solidarity calendar.
Labor 2024 General Election Kickoff Canvasses
Saturday September 7, 2024 at 10:00AM | Meet at the UA Local 290 Plumbers & Steamfitters Training Center in Redmond
Join Oregon Labor at a canvass for State Representative Emerson Levy and Anthony Broadman. Emerson Levy has been a champion for working families and we’re excited to help City Councilor Anthony Broadman get to the State Senate where he’ll continue to be a pro-worker voice for Central Oregon. Coffee, lunch and training provided.
Saturday September 14, 2024 at 10:00AM | Meet at the Oregon Labor Center in Portland
Join Oregon Labor at a canvass for State Representative Hoa Nguyen and Dan Rayfield. Nguyen is a union member and educator who is running for reelection in Southeast Portland and Dan Rayfield has been a labor champion in the State House now running for Attorney General. Coffee, lunch and training provided. Sign up to volunteer.
Must Read
August 28, 2024 | Oxfam
Oregon is ranked #1 in the nation for working women. “Working women face daunting challenges in the U.S. today. But it’s not the same for everyone: from one state to the next, policies around wages, protections, and rights vary dramatically. This map illustrates those disparities and points the way for states to do better for working women and their families.”
September 2, 2024 | Detroit Free Press
“The AFL-CIO represents nearly 13 million workers in our federation across 60 unions. This time every year, we come together to put the labor back in Labor Day. As much as we love the barbecues, the mattress sales — this is our week. This is about recognizing and appreciating the workers who make this country run. Last year, we started a conversation about how workers are doing in this country. Some of these numbers may surprise you: 70% of Americans support unions, among young people under the age of 30, it’s nine in 10. Union workers are continuing to find their power in two very distinct ways.”
Pacific Northwest Labor
September 4, 2024 | KGW8
“Portland is getting hit with hot temperatures this week, with highs expected to reach 100 degrees on Thursday and Friday. The three years since the record-shattering 2021 heat dome have seen a flurry of new rules and legislation aimed at protecting Oregonians and avoiding another death toll like the 2021 event, including new worker protections that took effect last summer.“
September 4, 2024 | Willamette Week
“A coalition of labor unions convened by the Northwest Oregon Labor Council have set up a political action committee aimed at electing labor-friendly candidates to the 12-member Portland City Council in the November election. In a Wednesday morning statement announcing the new PAC, Working for a Better Portland, the unions wrote that the committee is “composed of labor unions and allied groups that have independently considered the 87 candidates who have emerged over the past 12 months.“
September 4, 2024 | Reuters
“Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su on Wednesday encouraged Boeing and more than 30,000 of the planemaker’s factory workers to bridge a divide in negotiations and reach a fair contract, as a vote on a new deal looms on Sept. 12. Boeing’s Seattle-area workers, who produce the planemaker’s strongest-selling 737 commercial jet, are voting next week on their first new contract in 16 years, with the two sides still tackling demands such as job security.“
September 3, 2024 | The Oregonian
“Grocery workers at Portland-area Fred Meyer stores returned to work Tuesday after a six-day strike but called for a boycott of the grocery chain after reaching no deal on a labor contract. Members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555 walked out last Wednesday, planning to stay off the job until Tuesday morning, during contentious contract negotiations. The labor union said it was picketing the grocer because Fred Meyer officials have refused to address grievances brought by employees and failed to provide union negotiators with data to be used for bargaining.“
September 3, 2024 | Quartz
“Even though its plate is otherwise very full, Boeing will also have to contend with another big item thrown onto it. As a contract with the union representing its machinists comes up for renewal, the company might soon have a strike on its hands. Barron’s recently highlighted a research note from Sheila Kahyaoglu, an analyst at Jefferies, that suggests that the 40% raise requested by District 751 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers would add 2% to the planemaker’s cash needs, or $1.5 billion more than its current baseline.”
September 3, 2024 | Reuters
“The Unite Here union said on Tuesday strikes by U.S. hotel workers have concluded in Baltimore and Seattle, while 9,376 workers remained on strike in seven cities. Some 10,000 hotel workers began a multi-day strike in nine U.S. cities on Sunday after contract talks with hotel operators Marriott International (MAR.O), opens new tab, Hilton Worldwide (HLT.N), opens new tab, and Hyatt Hotels (H.N), opens new tab, stalled.”
September 3, 2024 | The Stand
“The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 46 has been assisting workers at Auto-Chlor as they seek to form a union for over two years. Throughout the process it is alleged that the employer engaged in certain illegal acts including discrimination, mistreatment, interrogation, threats, surveillance, maintaining unlawful work rules, and denying its employees union representation when requested. As a consequence of the employers’ anti-worker actions, the regional office of the National Labor Relations Board is undertaking litigation seeking prosecution of Auto-Chlor management related to unlawful treatment of employees.”
September 2, 2024 | Central Oregon Daily News
“Union workers across Central Oregon gathered in Alpenglow Park in Bend for their annual Labor Day picnic on Monday. The event was rounded out with live music, food and remarks from local union leaders. The picnic is meant to bring union workers together for comradery and to discuss their commonalities.”
August 28, 2024 | American Prospect
“The past month marked the second anniversary of a pair of historic federal industrial-policy bills: The Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act. The latter is an unprecedented bipartisan spending package, subsidizing the domestic production of semiconductors to combat American supply chain vulnerabilities and China’s manufacturing dominance. It’s a linchpin of the Biden-Harris administration’s attempts to revive American industrial policy and spur the creation of good-paying domestic manufacturing jobs.”
August 28, 2024 | Portland Mercury
“Nearly 5,000 employees at 28 Fred Meyer stores in and around Portland went on strike early Wednesday morning. The employees, represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555, plan to continue the strike for almost a week. Unless a deal is reached with Fred Meyer management, the grocery store workers won't return to work until 8 am Tuesday, September 3. UFCW says employees are striking over Fred Meyer's violation of labor laws amid contract negotiations between grocery store management and the union. The union has filed several Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges against Fred Meyer, claiming the company is "refusing to provide essential information for current negotiations" and advertised benefits to employees the company hasn't actually proposed at the bargaining table.”
August 30, 2024 | Central Oregon Daily News
“Before becoming an official holiday nationwide, Labor Day was adopted state by state. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Oregon was the first one to make it a statewide holiday on February 21, 1887, a full seven years before it was passed by Congress.”
Politics
September 2, 2024 | WVIA
“AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, riffing on contentious remarks made about childless women by Trump running mate JD Vance, said the Democrats could bring about “a future where they don’t call us working woman ‘childless cat ladies.’ They call us ‘Madam President.’” Shuler and several other speakers also touted Biden and Harris for shepherding through the Butch Lewis Act, a 2021 bill that rescued union pensions from insolvency.”
September 2, 2024 | The Detroit News
“Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris promoted the "power of unity" during a Labor Day speech Monday in Detroit, vowing to fight for a future where every worker has "the freedom to organize." Surrounded by national union leaders inside Northwestern High School, Harris, the current vice president, said she wants to enact new legal protections for labor. When unions are strong, America is strong, Harris said during a 15-minute address. “Everywhere I go, I tell people, 'Look, you may not be a union member, you better thank a union member for the five-day work week,'" Harris told the crowd. "You better thank a union member for sick leave. You better thank a union member for paid leave. You better thank a union member for vacation time. “Because what we know is when union wages go up, everybody’s wages go up.”
September 2, 2024 | NPR
“GONYEA: Democrats need labor to turn out. Liz Shuler is the president of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor organization. She says, in key battleground states, union members make up 20% of the vote. Plus, it's also significant that public support for unions is the highest it's been since the 1960s. LIZ SHULER: We've had historic highs. The last several years, young people under the age of 30 are the most pro-union, so what does that speak to? It speaks to the fact that the economy has been broken for young people for way too long.”
August 29, 2024 | Common Dreams
“Union leaders have warned that a Trump-Vance administration would be inimical to organized labor, with AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler calling the GOP ticket "a corporate CEO's dream" and American Federation of Teachers chief Randi Weingarten hailing the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden as "the most pro-labor, pro-public education leaders our country has seen in modern history.”
Organizing
September 3, 2024 | The Lawrence Times
“Happy Labor Day! The holiday is rooted in the late 19th-century labor movement and honors the sacrifices of workers fighting for fair wages and conditions. In honor of the holiday, we reached out to some local union leaders and organizers to find out how to go about unionizing a workplace in Lawrence. Seamus Albritton is president of the International Association of Firefighters in Lawrence, IAFF Local 1596. He started his career in fire service in 2013 with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical and became a union representative in 2017."
September 2, 2024 | The Hollywood Reporter
“A veteran Hollywood union is backing an ambitious push to unionize film and television production assistants, a move that has the potential to reshape how many entry-level creatives break into the industry. The Hollywood branch of Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), Local 724, is partnering with the grassroots group Production Assistants United to organize one of the last non-union crew positions on entertainment sets, Local 724 business manager Alex Aguilar Jr. announced on Monday. The goal is to bring roles where, classically, early-career creatives — set production assistants, office production assistants, art production assistants, assistants and production secretaries — pay their dues into the union fold across the country."
August 29, 2024 | The Guardian
“Unionization has been surging in higher education, according to a new comprehensive report that reveals a 133% increase among graduate student employees in the US since 2012. An estimated 38% of graduate student employees are now unionized, with more than 150,000 workers in 81 bargaining units as of January 2024. The extraordinary increase was highlighted by the first comprehensive study on unionization in higher education since 2012, by the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions at Hunter College."
Strikes
September 2, 2024 | AP
“More than 10,000 workers at 25 hotels across the U.S. were on strike Monday after choosing Labor Day weekend to amplify their demands for higher pay, fairer workloads and the reversal of COVID-era cuts. The UNITE HERE union, which represents the striking housekeepers and other hospitality workers, said 200 workers at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor were the latest to walk off the job. Nearly half of the striking workers – or 5,000 – are in Honolulu. That includes Briana Canencia, a food server for over a decade at a Marriott property who said she was on the picket line fighting for not only higher wages, but also respect amid reduced hours and increased workloads."
Workplace Safety
September 3, 2024 | Labor Tribune
“Alarmed at the safety threats warehouse workers face nationally, especially if they work for Amazon and Walmart, a bipartisan group of four representatives unveiled federal legislation to mandate bosses disclose production quotas and banning production methods that endanger warehouse worker health and safety. “Businesses can keep workers safe and earn a profit, but that’s only possible with more transparency and more accountability to bring warehouse safety standards up to date,” explained Rep. Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), a union electrical worker and co-chair of the Congressional Labor Caucus."
Labor Day
September 2, 2024 | Rolling Out
“Black organizers have played a crucial role in advocating for workers’ rights long before the Civil Rights Movement. This Labor Day, we honor five influential Black labor leaders who fought tirelessly for better pay, workplace equality and the empowerment of workers."
September 1, 2024 | Quartz
“Labor unions are having a bit of a comeback. Some 70% of Americans now approve of labor unions, up from 67% in 2023. This marks the second-highest approval rating for unions in almost 60 years, according to a recent Gallup poll; the only year during this timeframe with a higher approval rating was 2022, when support reached 71%. The past two years have featured pronounced union activity, from the United Auto Workers union’s push to win contracts with the Detroit Three — and beyond — to organizing movements at Amazon and Starbucks. Not to mention the writers’ and actors’ strikes of 2023 and the largest healthcare strike in U.S. history, as well as several ongoing — and potential — strikes that are poised to disrupt numerous industries."
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