Longtime labor organizer and political strategist Jonathan Tasini wants to make Portland a model union city for the nation.
A candidate for City Council in District 2 (North/Northeast Portland), Tasini introduces himself first as a union member of more than 40 years.
“It’s the thing that defines me. It’s the work I’ve done my whole adult life,” Tasini said.
Over the past decade, Tasini has done strategic consulting for national unions, including SAG-AFTRA. He served as a campaign surrogate for Bernie Sanders ahead of the 2016 election, and wrote a book about Sanders. He’s appeared on CNN as a frequent commentator about national politics and economics. Tasini also ran for Congress in New York, challenging the incumbent Democrat in a 2006 Senate race and a 2010 race for the House but losing by wide margins in both primaries.
Now, Tasini wants to focus on the local level.
At 67, Tasini said this campaign isn’t about padding his resume or gearing up for higher office.
“It’s simply about, can we establish the most pro-union, pro-worker city in the country, and use this city, in some ways, as a laboratory for testing out new ideas and new initiatives?” Tasini said.
“I’m always looking for the opportunities to build and expand power for working people,” Tasini said. Sometimes that looks like the day-to-day work of union organizers and leaders, but it also means grabbing hold of an opportunity like the complete restructuring of the city government, he said.
Tasini has been a union member since he joined the National Writers Union in 1983. He served as president of the union for 13 years, during which time NWU affiliated with United Auto Workers (UAW) as Local 1981. Tasini and other journalists won a Supreme Court case over freelancer pay, New York Times v Tasini. NWU membership grew to 6,500 members by the end of Tasini’s tenure in 2003. [The union disaffiliated with UAW in 2020 and now has roughly 1,500 members.
Tasini spent most of his adulthood in New York except for stints in Australia and Washington, D.C. He moved to Portland in 2018 after routinely visiting the city for work, drawn by the opportunities for hiking, camping, and cycling.
A lifelong renter, Tasini supports the Renters’ Bill of Rights proposal by the Renters Action Network and the Portland chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.
“You have to count to seven to get a majority of the (future) City Council,” Tasini said. “I’ve done that for 35, 40 years, working in legislative work. And I’ve succeeded and failed at the same time, but I know the process, and I know how to build coalitions around issues.”
Tasini supports more investments in public housing; the Frog Ferry project to bring a passenger ferry to the Willamette; a public broadband system; reform of the state’s kicker system; and raising the minimum wage.
To Tasini, every issue is a labor issue.
“I don’t believe there’s anything that doesn’t touch a union issue, because we’ve been at the forefront of everything: Medicare, safety and health, environment, you can just go down the list. The best part of the labor movement is engaged throughout society,” Tasini said.
