Posts tagged Portland
What happened to North Hollywood’s Star Garden, the nation’s only unionized strip club
September 24, 2026 // Since the NLRB complaint was filed in 2024, the club has not resumed normal operations with its 17 unionized dancers on an indefinite strike. Without a hearing, it’s uncertain if a union will operate anytime soon in a strip club industry valued at $7.7 billion. The Star Garden owners, Yevgenya “Jenny” Kazaryan and Stepan “Steve” Kazaryan, and their attorneys could not be reached by LA Public Press for comment. Stepan Kazaryan is also the registered owner of Dreams strip club in Wilmington. Other business filings show he owns Pink Diamonds Club in North Hollywood and Burlesque Enterprise Inc.
SEIU 503 approves vote to strike; could begin first week of classes
September 23, 2026 // If a contract agreement cannot be reached within the next week and a half, 4,600 classified workers across Oregon’s seven public universities would be eligible to strike as early as Monday, Sept. 28. According to an SEIU 503 press release, 97% of voting SEIU 503 members voted to authorize a strike after a two day strike vote. This potential strike comes after the union pushed back against current contract negotiations and benefits changes. In support of the union’s bargaining efforts, SEIU 89 held a rally on Sept. 9, several days before the opening of the strike vote.
KATU Photojournalist Hits IATSE Union, Station with Federal Labor Board Charges after Being Illegally Fired
September 17, 2026 // Union officials and complicit management illegally demand photographer join union and authorize dues deductions, then had him fired when he refused
Portland’s Union Electricians Are Moving to Idaho at an Alarming Rate
September 2, 2026 // And it’s not just Boise. Major data center projects are drawing IBEW members—on a temporary and permanent basis—to Reno, Nev., and Kennewick, Wash. Closer to home, geothermal projects near Bend are keeping electricians busy. Union leaders are desperate to stem the exodus of apprentices from Portland. To IBEW, data center construction is one obvious solution. But that viewpoint puts Local 48 at odds with other key members of the Democratic Party’s base.
Publishing’s ‘Hot Labor Summer’
August 26, 2026 // HWC organizers told PW they had been organizing on and off since 2022 and decided to go public this April. Something was in the air. Weeks earlier, employees at Catapult Book Group had launched their own union, and after HWC, staffers at University of Chicago Press and Dark Horse Comics announced union drives in quick succession. HWC, the Catapult Workers Collective, and the University of Chicago Press Workers Guild all won their union elections, while Dark Horse Workers United received voluntary recognition from management. In each union’s public statements, employees expressed strikingly similar reasons for organizing: inadequate pay, large workloads, and limited potential for advancement. They all cited, in their own words, what HBG organizer Julia DeVarti, an associate editor at Little, Brown, called publishing’s “passion tax”—workers’ tendency to “be exploited for working in an industry we love.”
More homeless shelter layoffs
August 11, 2026 // On Aug. 15 and 31, 11 workers will have their last day. Do Good Multnomah case manager Davis Nafshun, a member of the union bargaining team, says it’s the fourth round of layoffs in the last year. During that time, the non-profit’s workforce has shrunk from about 250 to about 195, even as the number of homeless in Portland has risen. Workers at Do Good Multnomah make at least $26.30 an hour, but have received no raises since they unionized in September 2024 and began bargaining March 2025. They’re proposing raises of 5% to 10% and a pay scale that rewards years of service. On the other side of the bargaining table, Davis says management’s wage proposal would cut pay $1,500 a year for more than 90% of staff.
Labor unions pull support of Portland City Councilor Mitch Green over construction project tensions
July 9, 2026 // "With the Bull Run filtration plant in particular, which kind of started this tension, I raised the alarm that the water bonds we were going to have to issue for that plant are going to set ratepayers on a path that are going to see their water bill double," Green told KGW. The cost of building the filtration plant in east Multnomah County has skyrocketed from $500 million in estimates circa 2017 to $2.56 billion as of earlier this year. Right now, the way the city expects to pay for it is by increasing residential water rates between 8% and 10% each year for five years.
Murmurs: PCC Spent $260,000 on Unemployment Benefits During Strike
May 26, 2026 // Senate Bill 916, which allows striking workers to access unemployment insurance during their time on the picket line, made Oregon the first state in the nation to require public employers to pay such benefits. Now we know how much that cost PCC. James Hill, a spokesman for the college, says it estimates it will incur about $260,000 in unemployment claims associated with the strike. (The average striking worker may claim unemployment starting in the third week of a strike, the same week the faculty union’s strike was resolved at PCC.) That number is significantly lower than the $1.45 million the college estimated it might have to pay each week, if all striking workers had filed claims. Public employers, often known as “reimbursing” employers, don’t opt to pay unemployment contributions to the state on a regular basis. Instead, such employers often reimburse the state dollar for dollar, which drove many public agencies to warn that the legislation would financially drain them. And while the state can relieve public employers of costs if they negotiate back pay agreements, PCC opted not to. The strikes at PCC were the first at a community college in Oregon’s history, and may have had broader implications for the institution. PCC president Adrien Bennings voluntarily separated from the college on May 14. The college’s board of trustees voted 6–1 to approve a $261,000 severance package—$1,000 more than it spent on striking workers—among other perks.
Oregon Fred Meyer Grocery Store Worker Prevails Over Illegal UFCW Local 555 Strike Fine
April 16, 2026 // Portland-area Fred Meyer grocery store employee Robert Wendelschafer has prevailed in his nearly two-year dispute with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 union officials. Wendelschafer filed federal charges against UFCW Local 555 after union bosses targeted him with a strike fine for exercising his right to continue working during a union boss-ordered strike action in 2024.
Deal Or No Deal?
April 8, 2026 // Workers at the Moda Center, with the exception of a handful of engineers, are not unionized. That, Davison said, is atypical—particularly in states like Oregon without right-to-work laws. The Teamsters have union contracts at Lumen Field and Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Oracle Park in San Francisco, and Ball Arena in Denver, while other unions, like the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, have a number of stadium contracts as well. But neither of those unions have a foothold at the Moda Center.