Posts tagged Oregon
Portland’s Union Electricians Are Moving to Idaho at an Alarming Rate
September 2, 2026 // And it’s not just Boise. Major data center projects are drawing IBEW members—on a temporary and permanent basis—to Reno, Nev., and Kennewick, Wash. Closer to home, geothermal projects near Bend are keeping electricians busy. Union leaders are desperate to stem the exodus of apprentices from Portland. To IBEW, data center construction is one obvious solution. But that viewpoint puts Local 48 at odds with other key members of the Democratic Party’s base.
Autism Therapy’s Latest Labor Challenge — Unionization
August 27, 2026 // Should unionization in states with a more progressive bent, such as California, New York, New Jersey or Oregon, take off to a meaningful degree; this would create “no-fly zones” for dealmaking. Already, the M&A pro said that these organizations are increasingly unattractive because of their strict and complicated regulatory systems. At the site level, increased wages from union activity may put specific locations in jeopardy if a company is not able to command commensurate increases in reimbursement from health plans. Strikes may also threaten the clinic’s viability. “By the time they end up negotiating a contract with the union, the center’s already dead,” the M&A pro said. “The center just died on the vine, and there was nothing left for them to argue over.”
Newsom Celebrates a Higher Minimum Wage as California Jobs Struggle
August 27, 2026 // Escalating minimum wages can also push employers to scuttle plans to expand their businesses because they cannot afford inflated payrolls. In extreme cases, they shut down their companies. Who knows, some might even leave, relocating in states that aren’t hostile to businesses. And that, we remind the governor, is a “different path” indeed.
Publishing’s ‘Hot Labor Summer’
August 26, 2026 // HWC organizers told PW they had been organizing on and off since 2022 and decided to go public this April. Something was in the air. Weeks earlier, employees at Catapult Book Group had launched their own union, and after HWC, staffers at University of Chicago Press and Dark Horse Comics announced union drives in quick succession. HWC, the Catapult Workers Collective, and the University of Chicago Press Workers Guild all won their union elections, while Dark Horse Workers United received voluntary recognition from management. In each union’s public statements, employees expressed strikingly similar reasons for organizing: inadequate pay, large workloads, and limited potential for advancement. They all cited, in their own words, what HBG organizer Julia DeVarti, an associate editor at Little, Brown, called publishing’s “passion tax”—workers’ tendency to “be exploited for working in an industry we love.”
Oregon State University objects to women’s basketball team’s petition to unionize
August 25, 2026 // Leaders at Oregon State University told the state employment relations board Monday they object to an effort by its women’s basketball team to unionize, arguing that the players are not employees and therefore cannot legally create a bargaining unit.
Opinion: Sneaky new teachers’ union plan to indoctrinate our kids: classroom AI
August 3, 2026 // Their objective is to indoctrinate, not educate. That misguided mission is largely to blame for the past decade of drastic learning loss in K-12 schools: Too much indoctrination, too little emphasis on the basics of math and reading. It’s a bad omen for our country.
Over 100 women’s college basketball players team up in unionization effort
August 3, 2026 // NCAA leaders have long opposed the idea of players becoming employees of their schools, though the idea isn't universally opposed by college leaders. Tennessee athletic director Danny White has been among those who have said collective bargaining is the only real solution to the problems that confront schools that are now paying millions to their players. Attempts to create unions for college athletes at Dartmouth and Southern California stalled in 2024 due to the changing landscape in college sports and the then-incoming Trump administration's new National Labor Relations Board, which wasn't expected to approve the moves.
Labor Board to Prosecute UFCW Union for Illegal Strike Fine Against Oregon Fred Meyer Grocery Worker Who Resigned
July 29, 2026 // On appeal, NLRB General Counsel finds UFCW union bosses violated the law by fining worker nearly $1,000 for supposedly working one hour during strike
Op-ed: You can’t legislate member loyalty
July 23, 2026 // Oregon State House Bill 3789, which last year made it illegal to “impersonate” a union, created new restrictions and legal risks to communicating with union-represented workers. The Freedom Foundation maintains that the law was designed to suppress effective outreach and has challenged it on constitutional grounds.
Now eligible for a union, legislative staffers are organizing across California
July 9, 2026 // The organizing campaign is still in its early stages: District staffers in the Bay Area are having one-on-one conversations with their colleagues in Southern California district offices; Capitol-based staffers are discussing priorities for the would-be union, and organizers are weighing options about which union they might eventually join.