Posts tagged Oregon
“Membership… at an all-time low”: NEA report credits Freedom Foundation for historic decline in Oregon, and offers an ironic solution
September 10, 2024 // It’s difficult to overstate the irony: To reverse the membership losses resulting from the Freedom Foundation’s educational campaign to teachers, the NEA directed funds to SKEA to implement a reform, transparent collective bargaining, the Freedom Foundation has supported for years — and that government unions themselves have long opposed. There’s an admission in there, isn’t there?
Boeing reaches tentative labor deal with 25% pay hike, new plane commitment
September 9, 2024 // The deal comes as workers are capitalizing on tight labor markets to make gains. The United Auto Workers union won a similar 25% general wage pay hike over four-and-a-half years with the Detroit Three last autumn. The talks had been watched by members of U.S. President Joe Biden's administration, with Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su last week urging the sides in an interview with Reuters to get a "fair contract."
Unions pursue law changes to boost membership
September 8, 2024 // “The overarching theme is that the unions have really responded to the membership losses since JANUS to drive up union membership,” Osborne said. In the JANUS decision, courts held that unions could no longer collect “fair share” dues from non-members who benefit from collective bargaining agreements. Follow-up litigation has challenged the cumbersome process many former members had to overcome to leave the union and recoup dues improperly withheld. In the report, states known as union “strongholds” scored lower than others that have enacted collective bargaining reforms.
Mandatory union meeting reinforces Oregon teacher’s decision to opt-out
September 1, 2024 //
Workers at Portland-area Fred Meyer stores to go on strike starting Wednesday morning
August 28, 2024 // Union leaders say the strike is necessary to encourage Kroger to reach a deal. The sides still disagree on pensions and wage scales, among other items. An unfair labor practices strike, often referred to as a ULP, is a common tool used by organized labor and, by definition, is a limited-duration protest. “A ULP strike is crucial to force Fred Meyer to comply with their obligations as an Employer to their Employees,” Dan Clay, president of UFCW Local 555 said in a statement, adding that members overwhelmingly approved the strike.
Oregon Voters to Consider Ballot Proposal Allowing Cannabis Industry Workers to Unionize
August 9, 2024 // Oregon voters will decide this November whether workers in the state’s struggling cannabis industry should be allowed to unionize, Willamette Week reports. The ballot initiative, Measure 119, was organized by the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) labor union after state lawmakers this year considered but ultimately failed to adopt the reforms. The legislation died in the House Business and Labor Committee — Rep. Paul Holvey (D), who chairs the committee, said that he let the bill die because the reforms would likely violate federal law.
Billboard campaign spotlights Oregon union’s flirtation with socialism
August 2, 2024 // What many teachers paying monthly dues to the Oregon Education Association (OEA) may not know is that their union has opened its doors to the nation’s foremost socialist group, allowing DSA to hold monthly meetings in OEA’s Salem office, as reported by the Freedom Foundation’s Research & Government Affairs Associate Ben Straka earlier this year. To inform Salem educators about the questionable use of their dues-funded union headquarters, the Freedom Foundation’s Oregon team developed and positioned billboards in the area, announcing: “OEA
A measure to help Oregon cannabis workers unionize is headed to November ballot, labor group says
July 11, 2024 // When a bill to enact a very similar law failed in the 2023 legislative session, UFCW announced it would attempt to recall state Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene. Union leaders accused Holvey, who chaired an influential committee, of tanking the bill’s chance of passing. Holvey, often seen as a staunch supporter of unions, has said he was concerned the idea would violate federal labor law, and that he offered UFCW opportunities to make changes. The union spent more than $300,000 on a recall campaign that was defeated overwhelmingly by voters in Holvey’s Eugene district last October. Holvey has since announced he will retire when his term expires in early 2025. In the meantime, UFCW was taking steps to put its idea directly before voters. According to campaign finance records, the union has spent more than $2 million on a statewide signature gathering campaign.
Union votes herald a new era for workers in Washington Legislature
July 11, 2024 // One petition covers 82 legislative assistants, policy analysts and communications staff of the House Democratic Caucus. The other is for 32 legislative assistants in the Senate Democratic Caucus. Both seek to be represented by the Washington Public Employees Association. Under Washington’s law, employees of the Democratic and Republican caucuses in each chamber must be in separate units unless a majority of each caucus votes to be in the same unit. However, units can negotiate collectively on economic issues, like wages and benefits, with the employers, which are the chief clerk of the House and secretary of the Senate. When bargaining begins, several subjects are off-limits, such as the length of the work day during a legislative session, as well as in the 60 calendar days before a session and the 20 days afterward.
Union ‘very surprised’ at jobs affected in OHSU layoffs
July 3, 2024 // These layoffs have been looming for weeks, spurred by an operating loss of $64 million for the fiscal year that ended Sunday. Jennie Olson, who both writes grants and contracts for OHSU and is the president of the AFSCME Local 328 which represents thousands of OHSU workers, told KOIN 6 News the number of layoffs could potentially rise to 500 members.