Posts tagged Oregon
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
Commentary: For Teachers’ Unions, Strikes Are the New Normal
February 19, 2024 // Meanwhile, students trapped in blue states – or blue cities – effectively run by teachers’ union political power, remained hostages to the demands of even more funding, hazard pay, increased “teacher work periods,” etc. In many cases, the demands even included political concessions like guaranteed housing and expanding Medicare for All. Don’t forget: Some teachers’ unions had to issue reminders for teachers not to post vacation pictures while the schools were closed. Because let’s call a spade a spade: The teachers’ unions used the COVID pandemic as history’s largest and longest strike, during which they tried to exact concessions they would have never achieved at a normal negotiating table.
Former Portland teachers union bargaining chair slams actions of union president during strike
February 14, 2024 // Former bargaining chair Steve Lancaster said PAT should've narrowed its proposals during the strike, instead of being unwilling to compromise for months.
Boeing union workers threaten to go on strike if they don’t get 40% pay raise, as embattled company faces fallout from faulty 737 MAX planes
February 7, 2024 // Both Boeing and the union have been named as parties of an ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation into midair cabin panel blowout on an Alaska Airlines MAX 9 on January 5.
Commentary: With Unions, the Numbers Tell the Story
February 5, 2024 // Public sector unions’ hold on government employees isn’t a lock. State legislatures can pass laws that rein in unionization and membership recruitment and protect employees. States can choose a different path by, for example, ending artificial union subsidies and requiring union executives to prove their value to employees. States can follow Florida’s lead: Last year, the Sunshine State ended union payroll deductions and doubled down on recertification, forcing unions to demonstrate actual support from membership to remain in power.
NEA Spends 500K on Four Oregon Ballot Measures, Raising Questions about Transparency
January 30, 2024 // According to new research from Americans for Fair Treatment, the National Education Association (NEA) and the Oregon Education Association (OEA) donated a combined $575,000 dollars of membership dues to the Oregon Votes Yes PAC during the 2022 election cycle. Expenditure reports show this money paid for online advertisements and canvassing in support of four constitution-amending ballot measures related to healthcare, criminal justice, quorum requirements, and firearms.
Commentary: Teachers strikes cost students weeks of school in 2023
January 3, 2024 // Betsy DeVos said that the strike-induced school closures "are continuing to exacerbate a problem [the unions] created by the extended lockdowns and shutdowns during COVID." "They're doing it at the expense of the kids they are supposed to be serving," she said. "The unions continue to try to amass more and more political power and extort taxpayers for more and more money and continue to promote a very leftist ideology across the board." DeVos said that lost learning due to missed school days is "devastating for kids [and] families" and noted that closing schools creates difficulties for families beyond the missed time in the classroom. "For those people who have jobs to go to on a daily basis, [they] now have to scramble to try to figure out what to do with the children that are left at home because their schools aren't opening to serve them," she said. "These unions continue to really whipsaw the people around who are supposed to be their customers; they're supposed to be the people they're serving. And yet there's no regard for the impacts on them.
17 doctors at Legacy Health Portland-area women’s health clinics seek to unionize
December 30, 2023 // “We are forming a union to put protections in place to ensure that high-quality, community-focused care remains the standard for birthing families and patients with gynecologic needs in East Multnomah County and across the Legacy Health system,” Dr. Britta Ameel of Legacy Medical Group-Mount Hood Women’s Health said in a written statement.