The Oregon AFL-CIO filed a prospective ballot initiative July 18 to regulate the number of self-checkout stations in Oregon’s grocery stores.
“The goal of our initiative is to protect grocery workers and our communities,” said Tom Chamberlain, president of the state labor federation and the initiative’s chief petitioner.
Chamberlain said self-checkout machines are part of a strategic corporate attempt to reduce costs and eliminate jobs.
“These machines turn customers into unpaid workers and allow stores to reduce the number of full-time employees,” he said.
Chamberlain said the push towards expanded automation at grocery stores places older customers and people with disabilities at a disadvantage when they are expected to use machines to purchase groceries.
It also “significantly impacts workers of color negatively, who are disproportionately over-represented as cashiers in retail businesses,” he said.
The Grocery Store Service and Community Protection Act seeks to limit the number of self-service checkout stations operating to two per store at any one time. The act gives the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industry enforcement authority.
The State of Oregon requires a minimum of 1,000 signatures of registered voters to accompany an initiative petition application. The Oregon AFL-CIO is currently gathering those signatures. Once certified with an initiative number and title, the AFL-CIO must collect 122,020 signatures of registered voters by July 2, 2020 in order to be placed on the ballot in November 2020.
If passed, the act would go into effect starting Jan. 1, 2021.
