Posts tagged Oregon
Tensions rise as Oregon nurses continue Providence picket
June 24, 2024 // When nurses expressed concerns that they would be turned away from work when they showed up to their shifts on Friday morning, Providence clarified it would notify nurses whether they had been selected to fulfill their shifts via phone calls on Thursday evening. ONA claims doing so is a violation of HB 2697, which “sets minimum safe staffing levels for nurses and allied healthcare workers.” “Providence submitted staffing plans to OHA for approval that were never agreed upon by nurses and were unilaterally adopted by management without the required approval from the nurse staffing committee,” the nurses union said in a public statement. “According to OHA, this action violates Oregon’s staffing law, as ONA-represented nurses have been claiming.
Providence claims nurses union is asking travel nurses to turn down contracts during strike
June 17, 2024 // Hospital leadership is referring to an ONA letter, which calls on "all nurses to stand in solidarity" and to "not accept travel nurse contracts scheduled to start in June or July." Providence announced last week that their facilities would remain open during the strike and that they'd fill those gaps with replacement workers. "The world of replacement nurses, if they feel intimidated or if they're feeling like this isn't a place that they are welcome to come, or safe to come, then it's possible that they wouldn't choose to accept those contracts and that could negatively impact patient care," Gentry said.
Private preschools in Portland abruptly shut down after employees try to unionize
May 3, 2024 // After Tigard teachers announced their intent to unionize in late March and Lloyd teachers prepared to file in early April, the schools were closed April 8. The teachers had thought unionizing both locations at the same time "would offer some protection."
Republican legislative staff move first to unionize under new WA law
May 3, 2024 // Legislative assistants for GOP members of the state House and Senate want the recently formed Legislative Professionals Association to represent them. Petitions on behalf of workers in each chamber were filed with the Public Employment Relations Commission, which will certify the bargaining unit and conduct an election. Legislative assistants want to ensure their concerns are heard in a workplace where they are in the minority, Lund said. The workers don’t want to risk living with a contract they disagree with and have no say in negotiating. Nor do they want to be pulled into a union and see their dues funneled outside the state to a national group.
Salem-Keizer teachers reach tentative agreement on new contract, avoid strike
March 28, 2024 // Still, the district is facing more than a $30 million deficit, Castañeda said. Hundreds of positions will be cut in the coming weeks. “I can tell you that this will be the largest budget cut in over a decade,” Castañeda said. Some parents told KGW that while they're happy a deal was reached, more needs to be done for students and teachers.
OREGON: Salem-Keizer teachers union to take strike vote next week, could strike early April
March 13, 2024 // “If there is a teachers strike, unfortunately, our schools would have to close. We simply cannot keep them open without our licensed staff, and so this means a few things, it’s time for families to start preparing for that possibility. We will not be able to serve students in our buildings,” she said.
HOUSE DEMOCRATS ADVANCE SEIU BILL IN OREGON KNOWING IT WOULD STRIP CAREGIVERS OF THEIR RIGHTS
February 29, 2024 // Specifically, Oregon’s HB 4129 would require the state to contract with up to two private vendors to administer part of the state’s Medicaid-funded homecare program. By doing so, it would create a new employment model governed by private-sector labor law, under which caregivers would lose their protections under the Harris ruling. SEIU 503 is the union purporting to represent Medicaid-compensated homecare workers in Oregon, and it’s has taken a big hit since Harris.
A Ballot Initiative Crafted by the Portland Police Union Seeks to Alter Function of Future Police Oversight Body
February 27, 2024 // The ballot initiative the police union and its backers have crafted would make the oversight board almost unrecognizable from the vision laid out by former Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty and her allies in the 2020 ballot measure. Perhaps most importantly, the initiative would shift the ultimate power of disciplining officers away from the board—and give it to Portland’s police chief. The accountability body would “provide to the Chief of Police full, fair, and objective investigation reports and recommended levels of discipline, if any, for complaints within its jurisdiction,” the initiative reads. “The Chief of Police shall have final and sole authority to impose discipline against Portland Police Bureau sworn employees.”
WASHINGTON DEMOCRATS ADVANCE BILL TO PERMIT ELECTRONIC UNION ORGANIZING
February 26, 2024 // The real problem with SB 6060 is that it doesn’t go far enough. The state agency administering Washington’s collective bargaining laws for public employees — the Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) — processes three kinds of representation petitions: (1) petitions filed by unions seeking to represent groups of non-union employees; (2) petitions filed by unions seeking to supplant an incumbent union; and, (3) petitions filed by employees seeking to decertify the union currently representing them. To proceed, state law requires that each of these three petition types be supported by signatures from at least 30 percent of the affected employees. Under SB 6060, unions could use electronic signatures in their efforts to unionize new groups of employees while those seeking to change unions or remove an unwanted union would still have to gather John Hancocks the old-fashioned way. But if the goal is to “empower” public employees to choose whatever union representation they wish, shouldn’t electronic signatures be permitted across the board?
US unions target the housing affordability crisis as their ‘biggest issue’
February 20, 2024 // Organized labor across the country is now setting its sights on housing costs as rents and mortgages continue to soar