A new law approved by the Oregon legislature makes it illegal to impersonate a union representative.
Legislators brought forward House Bill 3789 in response to reports that anti-union groups like the Freedom Foundation have sent union members misleading mailers or shown up at their homes and made false claims in order to get them to opt out of their union membership.
“There are laws in place to prevent someone from impersonating a peace officer, a firefighter or a doctor. These are trusted individuals — as are union representatives,” Rep. Hai Pham (D-Hillsboro), one of the chief sponsors of the bill, testified at a March 10 hearing.
Leaders of the Oregon Education Association, Oregon School Employees Association, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) said they’ve received frequent reports from members about misleading mailers or visits from people falsely claiming to be union representatives.
“Across Oregon, third-party entities mislead workers by posing as union representatives. They visit members’ homes wearing union branded apparel; send deceptive emails, texts, and mail; and even purchase misleading billboards to confuse workers into opting out of their union. These tactics exploit the trust that workers place in their union representation,” OEA Executive Director Tracey-Ann Nelson testified.
Nelson and other advocates said the efforts have disproportionately affected workers with limited English proficiency.
HB 3789 passed the House on April 10 in a 32-22 vote.
The Senate Committee on Labor and Business amended the bill to say an act only qualifies as falsely impersonating a union representative if the person or group had “the intent to undermine or interfere with the operations of the labor organization, or otherwise negatively impact the labor organization.” The Senate approved the amended version May 28 in an 18-12 vote. The House approved the Senate version June 2 and Gov. Tina Kotek signed the bill into law June 11.
Pham said the amended version set the bar higher for unions pursuing claims against impersonators.
Under HB 3789, unions can file a civil lawsuit against an individual or group that has falsely claimed to represent the union, and receive statutory damages of $6,250 per incident. But it will be up to a judge to determine what meets the definition of falsely impersonating a union representative.
That determination isn’t straightforward.
State Senator Daniel Bonham (R-The Dalles), who voted against the bill, said unions and the Freedom Foundation cited the same mailers in their testimony on the bill, but unions showed the fliers as examples of falsely impersonating a union representative while the Freedom Foundation said they were examples of how their communications aren’t misleading.
“I’d love to know if the examples put forward in testimony are indeed fraud, or if they are just something that’s disliked,” Bonham said in a May 13 hearing.
State Senator Kathleen Taylor (D-Portland) called that a “scholarly, academic” question. “I think that’s what the courts would be there for,” Taylor said.
