A prospective “Just Cause” ballot initiative has been approved to gather the signatures of registered voters in Oregon. But it might take a miracle for it to make it onto the ballot.
Just cause refers to a default protection that comes standard in union contracts: It means employers must have a valid reason to discipline or terminate a worker. Without a just cause requirement, employees are considered “at will,” meaning they can be discharged without any stated reason.
“Employers cannot discipline/fire employees, reduce hours, without specific reasons/procedures; severance required; criminalizes violations” is the ballot title assigned to it by the Oregon Secretary of State.
The initiative’s chief petitioner is Matthew Fennell, an internal organizer at Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals. Fennell was also a chief petitioner on a near-identical initiative that aimed for the 2024 ballot, but it took four months to gather the first 1,000 signatures, and the campaign failed to gather the required 117,173 signatures by the July 2024 deadline. Undeterred, Fennell filed a new initiative petition a month later, this time aiming at a constitutional amendment which would require even more signatures — 156,231 by July 2026.
The playbook looks similar the second time around, in that the campaign says in its filing with the state that it won’t use paid petitioners.
Volunteers who want to sign up for that can reach the campaign at oujc.org.
[12/31/25 CORRECTION: As it initially appeared, this article referred to Matthew Fennell as a former union rep.]
