March 2020 - nwLaborPress

Transit: Ridership plummets, but no workers are facing layoff, and cleaners are working overtime

Mar 25, 2020

In Eugene and Salem, bus service is now free. In Portland, new machines are disinfecting buses and trains with peroxide mist nightly.

Union Organizing

Citing coronavirus, Trump-appointed NLRB suspends all union elections

Mar 23, 2020

Even mail ballots are out, because NLRB agents count them in front of observers; verifying them while maintaining six feet of distance could be a challenge.

COVID-19 prevention leads Daimler to close Portland truck plant

Mar 23, 2020

The closure impacts roughly 700 members of four unions, and comes amid concerns that workers can’t all maintain six feet distance.

Grocery stores respond to epidemic: Sneezeguards, raises, bonuses, and a hiring spree

Mar 23, 2020

With grocery workers on the front lines of the coronavirus response, Safeway/Albertsons is raising pay $2 an hour, while Kroger is paying $300 bonuses.

At Portland icon Voodoo Doughnuts, workers announce they’ve formed a union

Mar 20, 2020

Feeling unsafe at a crowded and stressful donut shop that pays at or near minimum wage, workers have nowhere to go but up.

Even the coronavirus can’t stop union organizing

Mar 20, 2020

Immigrant rights group Causa agrees to recognize union immediately. Affordable housing non-profit Casa of Oregon will have to think about it.

Vancouver’s Columbian newspaper terminates union supporters

Mar 20, 2020

Of the three workers laid off March 16, two were leaders of the union campaign and were serving on the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild bargaining team.

The coronavirus pandemic is turning life upside down for working people

Mar 18, 2020

From worried nurses to overwhelmed grocery workers, from layoffs to the stock collapse’s impact on pensions, a look at the epidemic’s impacts on working people and union members.

Judge lowers ILWU jury award

Mar 18, 2020

ILWU is now supposed to pay terminal operator ICTSI $19 million, after a federal judge said the evidence did not support a jury award of $93.6 million.

OHSU grad workers win first contract

Mar 18, 2020

The unanimously ratified contract includes an immediate $80-a-month increase, three annual raises of 3%, dependent health coverage, and caps hours of work.