March 2021 - Page 2 of 4

Workers Rights

Trump NLRB appointees had declared that student teaching assistants aren’t employees under the National Labor Relations Act.

Members of a unit of 850 medical interns, residents and fellows have ratified their first union contract since joining Oregon AFSCME in 2019.

The withdrawal means three Local 555 delegates who held NOLC office can no longer serve those roles, including NOLC president Jeff Anderson.

Construction work on the $1.6 billion project could begin in early 2022 at Port Westward near Clatskanie and employ 800 workers.

Signed into law March 11, a year after COVID was declared a pandemic, the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill took effect almost immediately.

The just-passed COVID relief bill will rescue and restore over 100 declining union pension plans.

The Goldendale Energy Storage Project would be the area’s biggest project since the Columbia River hydro dams were built.

The U.S. House passed the PRO Act—labor’s top priority—March 9. Five Republicans joined all but one Democrat voting yes.

After trying over a year to get a first union contract, 143 medical technologists at St. Charles Medical Center in Bend walked off the job.

Over 2 million women left jobs during this “she-cession,” bringing women’s labor force participation to the lowest level in over 30 years.