Workers at the Buffalo Exchange in Downtown Portland voted 9-1 to join a new independent union in a Sept. 15 vote held in the employee break room. The Buffalo Exchange Workers Union will represent 10 employees at the store, one of more than 40 locations owned by the Arizona-based clothing resale chain. It’s the first union Buffalo Exchange.
The workers sent a letter to management July 30 asking to be voluntarily recognized as a union but never heard back, so they asked the National Labor Relations Board to schedule an election.
In mid-August, Buffalo Exchange Vice President Rebecca Block visited the Portland store for an on-the-clock anti-union meeting. Zoey Schaffner-Oldham, worker and member of the union’s organizing committee, said Block told workers that “unions have their place,” but Buffalo Exchange didn’t need one because it already supports its workers. Schaffner-Oldham has worked at the store since June 2022 and had never seen Block visit before.
Buffalo Exchange hired Tonkon Torp, a Portland-based law firm that says it offers help with “union avoidance.”
The workers now look to bargain a first contract that provides livable wages, safety training and hazard pay, inclement weather leave, and an updated attendance policy. Right now, most workers make $16 an hour, Schaffner-Oldham said.
