When Oregon lawmakers banged the gavel March 6 to end their 33-day “short session,” the state’s labor movement could count significant wins and a few disappointments. 

With Democrats in the majority, the legislature approved a stable funding source for the state’s chronically underfunded labor bureau, referred a transportation funding bill to voters in the May primary, and partially disconnected Oregon from the federal income tax code in order to prevent the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars of state revenue. All those measures had union backing. 

Labor organizations also helped defeat proposals to let loose robocars and to create a new exemption from the requirement to pay prevailing wage in construction.

But labor-backed bills to set standards in home care and let teachers bargain over class size will have to try another time.

Under Oregon’s constitution, the legislature meets for up to 160 calendar days in odd-numbered years and up to 35 days in even-numbered years. Here are some of the highlights of this year’s short session: 

• LONG-TERM FUNDING FOR BOLI Last year for the first time in decades, lawmakers gave Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) a big increase in funding. BOLI enforces wage and hour, civil rights, and other labor laws and oversees state-registered apprenticeship programs. But the funding for last year’s increases came from a one-time transfer from the Worker Benefit Fund, which pays for programs to help injured workers. This session, HB 4027 authorizes stable ongoing BOLI funding with a 0.2 cent per hour increase in the Worker Benefit Fund payroll tax —about $4.16 per employee per year split between employee and employer.   
• DISCONNECT FROM THE FEDERAL TAX CODE (PARTIALLY) Last year’s HR 1, President Trump’s “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act,” made lots of changes to the federal tax code. Because Oregon uses federal tax filings as the starting point for state income tax calculations, the federal changes were on track to reduce state revenues by hundreds of millions of dollars a year. SB 1507 claws back $291 million for the state over the next 18 months by disconnecting from three new federal tax cuts — tax breaks for auto loan interest, corporate equity sale profits, and accelerated depreciation for capital investments.
• SEND TRANSPORTATION FUNDING QUESTION TO VOTERS IN MAY Oregon pays for road maintenance with a 40-cent-per-gallon gas tax, but with inflation that will buy less and less over time. Last year lawmakers passed a transportation funding package that raises the tax 6 cents and increases vehicle fees and a payroll tax that funds mass transit, but Republican opponents gathered enough signatures to put it on hold and refer it to the November 2026 ballot. This year, SB 1599 moved that vote to the May primary. In the meantime, lawmakers also approved a move by the Oregon Department of Transportation to cut $218 million from programs like Safe Routes to School and the Connect Oregon grant program for aviation, rail and marine projects, redirecting those funds to support operations and maintenance and prevent the layoff of highway maintenance crews and DMV workers.
• RESCUE LOAN FOR BAY AREA HOSPITAL Publicly-owned Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay has come under significant financial stress in recent years.  Rescuing it has been a top priority for UFCW Local 555, which represents hospital employees. HB 4075 gives the hospital a $44 million loan from the state’s unclaimed property and estates fund. Education unions including Oregon School Employees Association opposed the bill because interest earned on money in the unclaimed property fund currently goes to schools.
• REPEAL CANNABIS UNION BALLOT MEASURE UFCW Local 555 spent heavily to pass Ballot Measure 119 in 2024. It required cannabis dispensaries to enter into labor peace agreements with unions as a condition of getting a license to sell cannabis. So it came as a shock that Local 555 this year asked the legislature to repeal it. The reason: A federal court in Oregon struck the measure down while a federal court in California upheld a similar law. When federal courts disagree, the U.S. Supreme Court can decide an issue, and Local 555 didn’t want to take its chances with the current court.
• CHANGES TO CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM LAW In 2024, legislators passed a law limiting campaign contributions as a compromise with campaign finance reform activists who were prepared to take a ballot measure to voters. This session, they passed HB 4018, which modifies that law, doubling spending limits and delaying the rollout of a contribution tracking system by three years to 2031. Representatives of Oregon AFL-CIO, Oregon AFSCME, IAFF, and other unions testified in favor, saying the changes were technical fixes needed to protect the law. Campaign finance reformers opposed HB 4018 and said they will try to send a measure to voters in 2028. 
• IMMIGRATION POLICY In reaction to the Trump administration’s ramp-up in deportation, Oregon Democrats introduced a bundle of bills that aim to protect immigrants regardless of their status and to limit where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents can go. Passing the package was a priority for the Oregon AFL-CIO and for SEIU. SB 1570 requires hospitals to have a plan in case ICE agents arrive and to designate areas of the hospital that are not open to the public. SB 1538 requires school districts to admit students to all schools regardless of immigration status. HB 4079 directs school districts and colleges to have a plan in case a federal immigration agents enter school property and requires them to alert staff, students, and parents. HB 4114 allows lawsuits against federal law enforcement agents if they enter private property without a warrant. HB 4138 bars law enforcement officers from wearing facial coverings and requires they visibly display their last name or badge number and agency. HB 4111 bars disclosure of the immigration status of witnesses, plaintiffs, and defendants in civil trials. SB 1587 bars public bodies from disclosing personally identifiable information to data brokers unless they commit that the data won’t be used to enforce federal immigration law.
• MAINTAIN CHILD LABOR LAWS Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries enforces federal child labor law, including limits on work hours and hazardous work.  What should Oregon do if those child labor laws are weakened at the federal level? HB 4013, backed by unions, says Oregon would continue to enforce the law as it stood in January 2026, insulating Oregon from any effort to weaken protections at the federal level. Incredibly, this was a partisan issue, with 22 House Republicans and 11 Senate Republicans voting against it.

BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME

As in every session, some union-backed proposals didn’t have enough support to pass. SB 1505 would have set up a long-term care standards board to set minimum standards for long-term care workers. And HB 4011 would have restored teachers’ right to bargain over class size. Unionized Oregon teachers had that right until the Republican-led 2005 Oregon Legislature removed it as a “mandatory subject of bargaining.” Now, class size can only be a subject of negotiation in collective bargaining if school district administrators agree, and that doesn’t happen. 

BAD BILLS DEFEATED

SB 1566 would have exempted taxpayer-funded affordable housing and child care projects from the requirement to pay construction workers the prevailing wage. HB 4085 would have permitted the use of autonomous vehicles statewide and prohibited cities and counties from making regulations or fees limiting robotaxis. Both bills were opposed by labor unions and didn’t advance.