Nearly 500 highway and road workers received layoff notices from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) the week of July 7 after the Oregon legislature failed to pass a transportation funding bill. Almost 300 of them are represented by Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 503.
Like other highway workers at ODOT, Ritchie Maes fills potholes, maintains highway shoulders, cleans up after mudslides and rock slides, plows snow, and provides traffic control after crashes. With the cuts, there will be fewer workers to share those responsibilities.
“Potholes aren’t going to be fixed as quickly, mudslides or rock slides aren’t going to be attended to as quickly,” said Maes, an SEIU Local 503 steward who works for ODOT out of Milwaukie. “It’s going to affect all of us.”
Local 503 executive director Melissa Unger said workers were already stretched thin because ODOT left hundreds of positions vacant in preparation for potential budget issues.
As ODOT navigated the layoff of nearly 10% of its workforce, Unger blamed the legislature.
“Elected officials had a choice here. We needed them to pass a transportation package. They knew the stakes,” Unger said at a July 2 Zoom press conference.
City and county transportation departments also face funding cuts. As initially proposed, the transportation funding package was projected to provide $14.6 billion in funding over the next decade, split between ODOT, cities and counties.
Multnomah County’s Transportation Division didn’t budget on the assumption it would get funds from a legislative package, so no layoffs are anticipated. But spokesperson Sarah Hurwitz said the county’s needs are far greater than its available funding, with 47% of county-managed roads needing to be rebuilt or replaced.
Portland, like other cities, approved its 2025-26 budget in June with the belief that the legislature would pass its proposed transportation funding package. Now the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) won’t get $11 million it had budgeted for the new fiscal year. As a result, PBOT expects to lay off around 50 workers, director Millicent Williams told a city council transportation committee on July 7.
That committee approved a resolution urging Gov. Tina Kotek to quickly reconvene the legislature for a special session to address transportation funding. The resolution now goes to the full city council.
Kyle Lewis, an ODOT bridge inspector and member of the board of the Association of Engineering Employees of Oregon (AEE) union, testified in favor of the resolution. AAE represents around 1,000 engineering and technical employees at ODOT and other state departments, including 79 who received layoff notices on July 7.
“The task at hand right now for our union is the same as it is for the city, in that we are preparing for the worst and doing everything in our power to minimize the harm done to our people if this isn’t corrected,” Lewis told city councilors. “But it would be a mistake not to center our efforts on where the issue starts, and that is the legislature’s failure to deliver basic funding for operations and maintenance that we all rely on.”
