Oregon Lottery workers vote to stay nonunion

SALEM — A majority of workers at the Oregon Lottery are betting they'll be better off on their own — without a union.

In mail-in ballots counted May 23, 127 Lottery workers voted in favor of joining the largest state employees union, Service Employees International Union Local 503, while 165 voted against. Turnout was 96 percent.

Leslie Frane, the union's executive director, said the result was an example of time and delay working against workers who want to organize.

SEIU said a narrow majority of workers had signed union authorization cards as of mid-November, but Lottery director Dale Penn held off on union recognition, saying some card-signers had changed their minds.

Pro-union workers decided to press ahead, and filed for a union election March 14. In the two months that elapsed before ballots were counted, a committee of anti-union employees formed, which ran an energetic campaign. As many as two dozen workers who had signed union authorization cards ended up changing their mind and voting no.

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