Posts tagged Oregon
Providence and nurses at 8 Oregon hospitals reach tentative agreement after 26 days of strike
February 6, 2025 // Providence and nurses at its eight Oregon hospitals have reached a tentative agreement after 26 days of strike, in what the state's nurses union has described as the largest health care strike in state history.
Lawmakers Will Consider Unemployment Benefits for Striking Workers
February 3, 2025 // Senate Bill 916, written at the request of the AFL-CIO of Oregon, would amend current Oregon law, which deems strikers ineligible for unemployment. The bill has not yet been scheduled for a hearing but has been assigned to the Senate Committee on Labor and Business. Given that the committee’s chair, state Sen. Kathleen Taylor (D-Portland), is one of the bill’s chief sponsors, it is highly likely to get an airing. It doesn’t hurt that the labor group that requested the bill, the AFL-CIO, represents 288 unions, which in turn represent more than 300,000 Oregon workers.
OREGON: City of Portland delivers final offers to unions as strike threat looms
January 30, 2025 // The most significant issue preventing an agreement is the major monetary gap, with AFSCME requesting an increase of $28 million and DCTU seeking an additional $13 million beyond the city’s proposed budget. AFSCME, the city’s largest bargaining unit with over 1,000 members, has requested significant wage increases for a wide range of job classifications, such as water and police, and increased longevity pay.
Providence health care strike reaches third week with no resolution
January 29, 2025 // The union added that there has been “zero movement” on critical issues like wages and health benefits where discussions have occurred. Providence said that the union’s proposals “are not financially sustainable.” The Renton, Washington-based health system added that its negotiators are working closely with federal mediators to negotiate with the union and that it expects “a lengthy walkout.” Providence largely refrained from negotiating before and during the early days of the strike, citing the need to prioritize stabilizing operations to keep hospitals running.
Fearing AI will take their jobs, California workers plan a long battle against tech
January 19, 2025 // More than 200 trade union members and technologists gathered in Sacramento this week at a first-of-its-kind conference to discuss how AI and other tech threatens workers and to strategize for upcoming fights and possible strikes. The Making Tech Work for Workers event was convened by University of California labor centers, unions, and worker advocates and attracted people representing dock workers, home care workers, teachers, nurses, actors, state office workers, and many other occupations.
Providence says operations are smooth despite 5,000 striking at its hospitals, women’s clinics
January 14, 2025 // Nearly 5,000 Providence Health & Systems nurses and other professionals walked off their jobs Friday in the largest strike by health workers in state history — and the first involving unionized doctors. Picket lines formed in the early-morning hours outside Providence’s eight Oregon hospitals, while replacement workers started their shifts.
Restaurant Minimum Wage Hurting Businesses and the Workers Proponents Seek to Help
January 10, 2025 // For fast food operators, it’s not just this latest minimum wage increase. Since 2013, their minimum wages have increased from $8 to $20, which is 2.5 times. It’s unsurprising that they’re slashing jobs, cutting hours and raising prices. This also coincides with a major turn towards automation. Of course, automation is driven by many factors, not just increased labor costs – but they certainly don’t help.
VIDEO: King Soopers, union agree to two-week contract extension
January 5, 2025 // “Workers are tired. They have been so overworked and really disregarded through this whole attempted merger that failed,” said Cordova. King Soopers representatives said they are prioritizing their commitment to invest in their associates with an improved wage offer, which shows that top-rate clerks would receive a 5.41% increase during their first year of the contract. A company spokesperson said their latest negotiation offer also removed a proposal to reset hours in the wage scale, which would allow employees to keep their hours within their progression as they move over.
Business groups sue over California’s new ban on captive audience meetings
January 4, 2025 // The law violates these protections by "discriminating against employers’ viewpoints on political matters, regulating the content of employers’ communications with their employees, and by chilling and prohibiting employer speech," the lawsuit said. Employers "have the right to communicate with their employees about the employers’ viewpoints on politics, unionization, and other labor issues."
CWA Local 7901 emerges from trusteeship
December 26, 2024 // Local 7901 was placed in trusteeship in August 2023 at the request of three of its area vice presidents. A trusteeship is the suspension of local elected leaders by a national union, which then appoints trustees to temporarily take charge. Trusteeships are regulated by federal labor law and are supposed to restore democratic procedures, correct corruption or financial malpractice, or rebuild a union that’s failing to perform basic functions.