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
🩺TODAY: OHSU INFORMATIONAL PICKET
Today, June 29 from 5:00 - 8:00pm, Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland Despite months of negotiations, little movement has been made at the bargaining table on the Oregon Nurses Association’s top priorities: safe staffing, retention & recruitment, workplace safety, justice/equity/diversity/inclusion, and moral injury. OHSU nurses are gathering to show hospital management that changes must be made! Everyone is welcome! This is a family friendly event.
🏥 OFNHP PEACEHEALTH ST. JOHN PICKET IN LONGVIEW, WA
July 2 from 3:00 - 5:00pm, 1615 Delaware St, Longview, WA 98632 (Meet on Douglas St. and 15th ave)
The lab professionals working at Peacehealth St. John in Longview, Washington are holding an informational picket to demand a union contract, safe staffing, and fairness at the bargaining table. After over a half dozen bargaining sessions, management is still refusing to bargain over critical issues affecting our patients and their negligence is putting our entire community at risk. Click here to RSVP.
🏳️🌈 2023 PORTLAND PRIDE PARADE & FESTIVAL
July 15 - 16 (parade July 16), downtown Portland
Join Oregon's Labor Movement for the Portland Pride Parade on Sunday, July 16, as we march in solidarity with our LGBTQ+ siblings and demonstrate our commitment to defending the rights of all Oregon workers. With legislatures across the country passing anti-trans bills and laws hostile to the LGBTQ+ community, it's more important than ever that Oregon Labor shows our unwavering support as allies.
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
📺PROTECT KGW & LOCAL JOURNALISM JOBS
IATSE Local 600 represents KGW-TV's award-winning photojournalists & editors. They are asking for a fair contract with fair wages. KGW's parent corporation, Tegna, wants to remove protections on maintaining staff positions and won't agree to fair wage increases or adding new protected classes in the contract in the non-discrimination section.
Oregon Labor
June 23, 2023 | Oregon AFL-CIO
“Sarina is a union nurse, and serves as Secretary and Steward for OFNHP, AFT Local 5017. She brings decades of experience on the shop floor to our Federation and we’re incredibly inspired by her spirit of justice and her fight for the rights of all working people.”
June 23, 2023 | Oregon Nurses Association
Watch the Oregon Nurses Association speak about the Providence strike, calling on the attorney general to investigate the use of professional strikebreakers, and the passage of HB 2697 - the safe staffing law by the Oregon legislature.
June 23, 2023 | FOX 12
“Providence nurses are back at work after a five-day strike, but with tension between the hospital and the Oregon Nurses Association after the union called on the Oregon Attorney General to investigate the hospital group’s use of “professional strikebreakers” this week.”
June 23, 2023 | The Oregonian
“Oregon nurses scored a major victory in Salem Thursday as lawmakers approved a new minimum staffing mandate for hospitals.”
June 22, 2023 | KOIN 6
“Healthcare workers rallied in front of the Hillsboro Medical Center Thursday in solidarity with employees who face an uncertain future after the hospital announced a department-wide layoff. More than 50 housekeeping and café employees were given a 30-day layoff notice after the hospital announced a plan to outsource the department’s work to Compass One, a third-party company.”
Oregon Minimum Wage Increase
June 27, 2023 | KOIN 6
“Anyone who works a minimum wage job in Oregon will get a raise starting July 1. In all parts of the state, the minimum wage will increase. However, in Oregon, the minimum wage is not equal across the state. Oregon’s minimum wage is divided into three areas: the Portland metro area, the “standard” area, and the non-urban area.”
June 26, 2023 | KOBI-TV NBC5 / KOTI-TV NBC2
“ Starting July 1, the minimum wage in Oregon will go up 70 cents an hour. The minimum wage won’t be the same dollar amount across the state, however, as Oregon’s minimum wage system is different than other states. Oregon has three levels of minimum wage: the standard rate, a lower rate for rural areas and a higher rate for the more expensive Portland metro area.”
National Politics
June 29, 2023 | AFL-CIO
“In case you missed it, yesterday President Joe Biden spoke in Chicago about “Bidenomics,” his economic agenda and his commitment to being “the most pro-union president in American history.””
June 27, 2023 | American Federation of Teachers
““Today, the court decided to honor settled precedent and reject the ‘independent state legislature’ theory—a baseless thought bubble from the extremist MAGA fringe that could have struck a major blow to free and fair elections. The justices correctly noted that states cannot evade the requirements of federal law.”
June 26, 2023 | Labor Tribune
“The AFL-CIO has endorsed President Biden’s reelection campaign in a major win for the President as he works to shore up Labor support for his 2024 White House bid. The general board of AFL-CIO voted June 16 to endorse Biden and Vice President Harris –– the earliest the AFL-CIO has ever voted to endorse in a presidential election. Biden rallied with union members June 17 in Philadelphia.”
June 26, 2023 | People’s World
“By an 11-10 party-line vote—Democrats and independent Bernie Sanders for, all Republicans against—the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved the Protect the Right To Organize (PRO) Act. The measure has long been organized labor’s #1 priority and would help level the playing field between workers and bosses in union organizing and workers’ rights while imposing higher fines on corporate labor law-breakers.”
Strikes
June 28, 2023 | Deadline
“Writers Guild of America members and supporters brought their pickets to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, this time to demonstrate at a location for the next Captain America movie. About two dozen started picketing in late afternoon about a block away from the White House, near the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th Street.”
SAG-AFTRA “Prepared To Strike” Letter Hits 1,000 Signatures, Including Guild President Fran Drescher
June 28, 2023 | Deadline
“This is not a moment to meet in the middle, and it’s not an exaggeration to say that the eyes of history are on all of us. We ask that you push for all the change we need and protections we deserve and make history doing it. If you are not able to get all the way there, we ask that you use the power given to you by us, the membership, and join the WGA on the picket lines.”
Hotel workers can't afford to live in LA, consider July 4 strike
June 27, 2023 | KCRW
“More than 15,000 hotel workers in Los Angeles and Orange Counties could strike as soon as Independence Day weekend, if contract negotiations with employers over raises and benefits continue to stall. Their current contract expires at midnight on June 30. Non-managerial hotel staff, including housekeepers, cooks, and servers represented by Unite Here Local 11, voted overwhelmingly this month to pre-authorize a strike.”
Building Power
June 26, 2023 | Bloomberg Law
“Microsoft Corp.‘s union-friendly stance has opened the door for organizing among online gaming studios nationwide in what legal observers say is a model for other companies looking to establish better relationships with organized labor.”
June 26, 2023 | The American Prospect
“In December last year, a looming freight rail strike was forbidden by the federal government. After months of negotiation, Congress passed and President Biden signed a measure imposing a contract drawn up by a government arbitration panel, which granted substantial raises but no paid sick leave (instead of forcing management to accept the key worker demands, which he could have done).”
Workplace Safety
June 28, 2023 | LA Progressive
“SB 553 is modeled on rules instituted in California in 2017 for the health care industry, and the bill has the support of influential worker advocacy organizations like the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Nationally, 11 states have enacted similar laws requiring health care businesses to establish a violence prevention plan or program. An analysis of federal data shows that the number of health care sector-related workplace violence citations in California has sharply dropped since reaching a high in 2019.”
June 27, 2023 | My San Antonio
“Texas mail carriers began work a little earlier than normal on Monday, June 26, and with good reason. Closely following the death of a 66-year-old postal worker in Dallas, the National Association of Letter Carriers (NACL) Branch 132 President Kimetra Lewis announced USPS mail carriers would be starting work at 7:30 a.m., WFAA reported. This comes during a time when Texas is experiencing a record-breaking heat wave, which some believe to be the cause of death of Eugene Gates Jr. Gates was going door-to-door delivering mail in Dallas on June 20 when he collapsed.”
Reproductive Rights are Workers’ Rights
June 25, 2023 | Cleavland.com
“Tim Burga, president of the Ohio AFL-CIO, said the Facebook ads are just part of a “slow roll” that his group has planned for the coming weeks, along with direct mail, yard signs, buttons and more. The group’s opposition to Issue 1 is more about it being a “power grab,” and for now is neutral on the abortion issue. Burga said he wants to preserve organized labor’s ability to go to the ballot if the state legislature isn’t responsive to its issues.”
Starbucks
June 28, 2023 | CBS Colorado
“The workers want Starbucks to negotiate a contract and the National Labor Relations Board -- the federal agency that supervises union elections for labor union representation and investigates unfair labor practice allegations -- is investigating the company for failing to bargain with unions in good faith.”
June 27, 2023 | CNN Business
“Earlier this month, Starbucks Workers United, the union representing organized stores, claimed that Starbucks has restricted decorations celebrating Pride Month in locations in multiple states. Starbucks, in turn, forcefully denied this claim.”
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