By Don McIntosh
Oregon’s Employment Relations Board (ERB) will count mail ballots May 28 to determine whether a group of about 180 legislative assistants who work for individual Oregon lawmakers want a union.
In December, IBEW Local 89 turned in union authorization cards signed by a majority of the workers, but lawyers at the Oregon Department of Justice argued on multiple grounds that they don’t have the legal right to unionize. In April, ERB rejected those arguments and ordered the election to move forward. If a majority of the workers vote to unionize, they would be the first group of legislative workers in the nation to be union-represented.
