Posts tagged Oregon
Interior Department reveals plans to lay off more than 2,000 employees
October 21, 2025 // According to the documents, the RIF would involve: 474 employees in the Bureau of Land Management 12 employees in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management 30 employees in the Bureau of Reclamation 7 employees in the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement 143 employees in the Fish and Wildlife Service 272 employees in the National Park Service 7 employees in the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement 770 Interior headquarters and Interior Business Center employees 335 employees in the U.S. Geological Survey In an earlier filing last week, the department said it had been planning the staff cuts for months, and until they were blocked by a restraining order, officials had planned to abolish the positions “imminently” and issue RIF notices to the staff in those roles.
Kaiser Permanente employees return to work after 5-day strike
October 21, 2025 // The strike was part of a walkout involving 31,000 members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP). Members include registered nurses, pharmacists, physician assistants, rehab therapists, dietitians, speech-language pathologists, nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, midwives and other specialty health workers. Picketing was held at three facilities in San Diego County: Zion Medical Center in Grantville, San Diego Medical Center in Kearny Mesa and San Marcos Medical Center.
The 15 Most Unionized Places in America
October 16, 2025 // To determine the most unionized locations in the U.S., researchers at Construction Coverage analyzed data from UnionStats.com and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The researchers ranked metropolitan statistical areas according to total union members as a percentage of total employment. In addition to union membership, the researchers also included statistics on union representation, which is the share of workers whose terms of work are collectively negotiated (whether or not they are union members). Only metropolitan statistical areas with available data were included in the analysis.
Kaiser Permanente workers strike in Oregon and Washington, join nationwide picket lines
October 16, 2025 // According to Kaiser's officials, the alliance wants a 25% payroll increase, but Kaiser has instead put a 21.5% increase on the table. Officials say they've been planning for the strike for months and told KATU all of their facilities will remain open, and adjustments are being made accordingly. Kaiser says it's bringing on up to 7,600 nurses, clinicians, and other staff to work during the strike and says more than 1,000 of their employees have volunteered to be reassigned to work in locations impacted by the strike.
Update: Labor Peace Agreements, the Cannabis Industry, and the NLRB
September 23, 2025 // The intersection of LPAs, the cannabis industry, and the NLRB presents a legal landscape marked by uncertainty and rapid change. As states continue to require LPAs as a condition of licensure, and as the NLRB remains without a quorum, employers and unions must navigate a patchwork of state regulations without clear guidance. Until federal legalization or NLRB functionality brings greater clarity, businesses should work closely with legal counsel to ensure compliance with state requirements while preparing for potential shifts in federal enforcement. Ultimately, the future of labor relations in the cannabis sector will depend on how courts, regulators, and industry participants respond to these unprecedented challenges.
Does federal marijuana prohibition mean cannabis workers can’t unionize?
September 19, 2025 // That’s what so-called “trigger laws” in California, New York and Massachusetts call for: allowing workers to petition state labor-relations entities if the NLRB cannot function. That could work against cannabis companies in such blue states. In contrast, it would be a boon for anti-unionization efforts in states with weak labor laws such as Missouri, where the cannabis industry is doing comparatively well compared to other states. It’s not clear what might happen next in Michigan, where Democratic lawmakers repealed anti-union “right-to-work” laws in 2024.
Commentary: Unions Are Shrinking Nationwide—But Not in California
September 3, 2025 // California, though, is noteworthy for its steady union presence. It hasn’t fluctuated much since 2005, despite the national decline. Further, the federal data set used to produce the union figures does not include home health care and child care workers who are classified as self-employed. In California, that takes in some 700,000 workers, even though their hourly wages are negotiated with individual counties through unions.
Labor unions are much stronger in Oregon than nationally
September 2, 2025 // Nearly 300,000 Oregon workers belong to a union, according to federal data, about 1 in 6 workers statewide. Union membership rates have fluctuated since the 1980s but have gradually increased over the past two decades.
Evergreen school employees strike as districts across the Northwest start heading back to class
August 27, 2025 // The union is asking for paraeducators to be paid for the full time they are at school, even if students need assistance after classes end. They’re also asking for release time to do union work, among other benefits. Union representatives said the district has so far been inflexible with their requests as well as bargaining dates.
Trump Just Saved Thousands of Disabled Americans’ Jobs
August 5, 2025 // Disability-rights advocates have long insisted that, as a matter of public policy, disabled people’s lives should resemble those of nondisabled people to the greatest extent possible. They have argued, for example, that “segregated” environments, which primarily or exclusively serve disabled people, violate the principle of normalization and ought to be abolished. And for decades, they have called for the repeal of Section 14(c), a provision of the Federal Labor Standards Act (FLSA) of 1938 that allows certified employers to pay disabled workers a subminimum wage commensurate with their productivity. Congress created the 14(c) program to enable people with severe disabilities to remain in the job market after the passage of the federal minimum wage. The Biden administration published a proposed rule in 2024 that would have phased out the program, claiming that it was “no longer necessary to prevent curtailment of employment opportunities.” But last month, the Trump administration announced it was withdrawing the proposal. In doing so, it preserved the jobs of thousands of severely disabled Americans who would have lost one of the staples of a “normal” life.