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.
Labor Day Events
On Monday, September 2, Oregon’s unions will gather to celebrate the achievements of working people and the strength we have when we stand together. The Oregon Labor Movement will host Labor Day picnics in Canby, Springfield, and Bend. Here are the locations and times for each event, we hope to see you there!
PORTLAND AREA
Northwest Oregon Labor Council
Clackamas County Fairgrounds
694 NE 4th Ave in Canby
11:00am - 4:00pm
LANE COUNTY
Lane County
Central Labor Chapter
Splash Pad Picnic Shelter
6100 Thurston Road in Springfield
12:00pm - 3:30pm
CENTRAL OREGON
Central Oregon Labor Chapter
Alpenglow Park
61049 SE 15th St in Bend
12:00 - 3:00pm
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.
We’re Hiring!
Oregon AFL-CIO is Hiring Campaign Canvassers
Are you passionate about economic justice and want a job that will make a real difference? Are you ready to strengthen the voice of working people in the political process and help balance the power of corporations and wealthy elites? If so, we need YOU for our robust political program during the upcoming general election to help mobilize voters for critical races! These are full-time temporary positions through the November 2024 election. For details and to apply, see our posting on unionjobs.com.
Must Read
August 19, 2024 | USA Today
“Leaders from six of the largest labor unions in the U.S. were part of the group of speakers kicking off the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday. Most of the labor leaders spoke of their experiences working with Vice President Kamala Harris and the support their groups have enjoyed during the Biden-Harris administration…Who are they: Leaders from six different labor groups: Lee Saunders, President of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), April Verrett, President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Brent Booker, General President of the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), Kenneth W. Cooper, International President of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Claude Cummings Jr., President of the Communications Workers of America (CWA), Elizabeth H. Shuler, President of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).”
Pacific Northwest Labor
August 21, 2024 | The Stand
“At 12:00 pm on September 10, unionized public employees at state agencies, community colleges and four-year universities will Walkout for Washington to demand livable wages, safe staffing levels, and respect for the Washingtonians that depend on their services. Negotiations have been underway since April between the 50,000 public workers represented by AFSCME Council 28 (the Washington Federation of State Employees) and the Office of Financial Management (OFM). At the conclusion of a 15-hour bargaining session on August 19th, the parties remained no closer to an agreement on critical matters like compensation.“
August 21, 2024 | Simple Flying
“Boeing and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District Lodge 751 are still far off from an agreement, with the union, representing employees working at the manufacturer’s Seattle, Washington, United States, facilities being prepared to walk out and strike in September.“
August 20, 2024 | KMTR
“Fred Meyer's offer and wage increases and one time bonuses...it just isn't going to cut it," said Miles Eshaia, communications coordinator, UFCW Local 555. "Destabilizing our employees healthcare plan is not the way to go. You don't get to shift $30-million, our own money, to pay out bonuses for workers. If they can afford to pay higher wages in Tacoma, nothing makes Portland, or Eugene, or Bend, or Hood River, or Coos Bay, or Longview any different.”
August 20, 2024 | The Stand
“The Regional office of the National Labor Relations Board is undertaking litigation seeking prosecution of Auto-Chlor management related to unlawful treatment of employees, per the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the union that has been assisting these workers in their organizing drive for over two years. Throughout the process, it is alleged that Auto-Chlor engaged in certain illegal acts including discrimination, mistreatment, interrogation, threats, surveillance, maintaining unlawful work rules, and denying its employees union representation when requested.”
August 19, 2024 | OPB
“Perez’s death in Oregon provoked quick action from Oregon’s governor and lawmakers, who implemented stricter rules for employers during extreme heat, including requirements for frequent breaks, and allocated state money to a relief fund for employees who miss work because of heat illnesses or smoke. Since then, heat-related worker deaths in the state have gone down dramatically.”
August 17, 2024 | KOIN
“Portland Fred Meyer workers have officially voted to authorize a strike, claiming multiple unfair labor practices (ULPs) were committed by the grocery company. This strike authorization also comes after the grocery workers union, UFCW Local 555, walked back its previous endorsement of a Kroger-Albertsons merger on Friday. In a press release, the union noted they have been taking ULP strike authorization votes for expired contracts in Portland throughout the week.”
August 16, 2024 | Bend Source Weekly
“Several technical workers at St. Charles Health System walked the picket line on Aug. 15, campaigning for a new union contract aimed at securing safe staffing and living wages for healthcare workers. The workers, who include surgical techs, respiratory therapists and sonographers, have been in negotiations over their next union contract for several months.”
August 15, 2024 | Willamette Week
“After almost a year of negotiations, unionized researchers with doctorate degrees reached a tentative four-year labor agreement with Oregon Health & Science University, their first as a bargaining unit. The agreement promises the 250 members of PostDoc Workers United a 6% pay increase upon ratification, and a lump sum payment of $2,000 if the union’s members vote to approve the deal by Aug. 31. They would get pay increases of 3.5% in the second through fourth year of the contract.”
Politics
August 21, 2024 | ABC News
“Are we fighting for freedom? That's what I thought," AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee's women's caucus. "Freedom is not drowning in medical debt. Freedom is earning the same salary as a man does for doing the same job…Freedom is about making our own decisions about our own bodies.”
August 21, 2024 | Salon
“But despite the pro-labor image they’re pushing, Vance and Trump are anything but. “I think it’s dumb to hand over a lot of power to a union leadership that is aggressively anti-Republican,” Vance told Politico. Trump’s record too is staunchly anti-labor. Just last week, the UAW announced the union is filing federal charges against Trump for arguing that striking workers should be fired in a discussion with X CEO Elon Musk. “Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected,” Fain said in a statement. “Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns,” he added.”
August 16, 2024 | MSNBC
“With its rallies that pack arenas, Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign has harnessed an energy that many have compared to Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. Polls in battleground states indicate that the dynamics of the presidential race have fundamentally shifted, but skeptics question if the good vibes can last once the vice president starts to detail policy. Is this burst of excitement, they ask, just the momentary enthusiasm of voters surprised by an unexpected transition? When we pay attention to what Harris and Walz have already said, though, it’s clear they have tapped the energy of worker-driven movements that want to create an economy that works for all of us. The good vibes and the economic vision of this campaign are, in fact, deeply connected.”
August 15, 2024 | NPR
“Labor unions are among Kamala Harris’ most fervent backers in her run for president, and federal employee unions especially so. Not only do they love her unabashed support for labor, they also fear what her opponent Donald Trump might do if he’s elected president again. It’s not hyperbole to say that since becoming vice president, Harris has played a key role in bringing federal employee unions back from the brink.”
Organizing
August 19, 2024 | People’s World
“The AFL-CIO is sending dozens of new organizers to live and work full-time in aiding workers in the deep South states of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina as part of its drive to add a million new members, net, within the next several years, federation President Liz Shuler says. In a brief interview at a reception in Chicago just before the Democratic National Convention opened there, Shuler listed several reasons for the emphasis. “We feel unions are taking root there” despite the decades-long hate of unions by the Southern ruling class of both corporate heads and politicians, she said. Shuler also noted it’s ripe for organizing, as the fastest-growing, but also the poorest, U.S. region.”
Strikes and Actions
August 20, 2024 | WPXI
“The grievance filed by United Steelworkers against United States Steel Corp. alleging violations of its basic labor agreement in the $14.9 billion proposed sale to Nippon Steel is in the hands of arbitrators. The Pittsburgh-based union, which represents about 10,000 U.S. Steel employees, filed the grievances in January, about a month after the Dec. 18 sale announcement by U.S. Steel after several months of a bidding process. United Steelworkers said the sale to Nippon Steel violates the union’s rights regarding change of control under the four-year Basic Labor Agreement signed in 2022. United Steelworkers in particular has said U.S. Steel (NYSE: X) violated the successorship clause in the deal with Nippon Steel."
August 19, 2024 | CBS News
“The United Auto Workers union says it's preparing to file grievances and potentially strike after claiming Stellantis hasn't kept contract commitments regarding reopening the Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois. The Belvidere plant was idled in 2023, but in last year's contract, the automaker committed to reopening the facility, which would include the production of midsized trucks, according to a release from the UAW. "This company made a commitment to autoworkers at Stellantis in our union contract, and we intend to enforce that contract to the full extent," UAW President Shawn Fain said in the release. "On behalf of autoworkers everywhere, we're standing up against a company that wants to go back on its commitments and drive a race to the bottom at the expense of the American worker."
August 15, 2024 | USA Today
“Over 10,000 hotel workers are planning to go on strike this fall. The move could disrupt fall travel at some of the nation's most popular hotels as workers fight for better pay and working conditions. As of Wednesday, over 50 hotels across the U.S. in major cities such as San Francisco and Honolulu have already voted to strike. At six resorts in Hawaii – including the largest in the state, the Hilton Hawaiian Village – 94% of workers voted in favor of striking. Throughout the week, thousands more will decide whether to join the strikes, according to the hospitality labor union UNITE HERE. The workers, including housekeepers, servers, and front desk clerks, are pushing for higher wages and fairer workloads after enduring increased burdens from the pandemic. "Since COVID, the hotels have rebounded, but wages have not caught up," Gwen Mills, International President of UNITE HERE, told USA TODAY. "We need wages to catch up so one job can be enough."
Artificial Intelligence
August 19, 2024 | Fast Company
“Video game performers say they fear AI could reduce or eliminate job opportunities because the technology could be used to replicate one performance into a number of other movements without their consent. That’s a concern that led the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists to go on strike in late July. “If motion-capture actors, video-game actors in general, only make whatever money they make that day … that can be a really slippery slope,” said Dalal, who portrayed Bode Akuna in “Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.” “Instead of being like, ‘Hey, we’re going to bring you back’ … they’re just not going to bring me back at all and not tell me at all that they’re doing this. That’s why transparency and compensation are so important to us in AI protections."
August 14, 2024 | Variety
“SAG-AFTRA has struck a deal with AI startup Narrativ for audio voice replicas in digital advertising that the union asserts sets “a new standard” for ethical use of the technology and also makes it easy for performers to give consent and get paid. The New York-based Narrativ operates an online marketplace that offers tools to advertisers to create audio spots using AI tools. The firm’s new agreement with SAG-AFTRA promises to give the union’s 160,000 members the opportunity to add themselves to a database that connects voice talent to advertisers. The individual members will have the ability to negotiate fees for the use of their voice on a project by project basis, so long as the fee isn’t lower than SAG-AFTRA’s minimum per its most recent commercials contract with advertisers."
CEO/Worker Pay Gap
August 16, 2024 | Jacobin
“The AFL-CIO, the country’s major labor union federation, has put forward a much clearer and more compelling message, placing the blame for crippling price increases squarely on rapacious CEOs and their outlandish compensation. In its annual Executive Paywatch report, it finds that CEO pay at S&P 500 companies has actually increased 6 percent over the last year to an average of $17.7 million.”
August 14, 2024 | Reuters
“We expect that CEO-to-worker pay ratios will increase if CEOs continue to prioritize corporate profits and their own compensation over the workers who make those profits possible, as years of Executive Paywatch data have shown," said Brandon Rees, the AFL-CIO official who oversees the reports. The federation says it represents 12.5 million workers.”
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