Northwest Labor Press is an independent union-supported newspaper founded in 1900. Our print version is mailed twice a month to about 45,000 members of over three dozen local unions in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Our online version has been maintained here since 1997.
Collective bargaining
Starbucks set to restart bargaining in April
The strike is over for now, but the union still asks customers to boycott the company.
Strike ends at PCC
Oregon’s first-ever strike at a community college lasted 20 days.
Strike shuts Portland Community College
The strike by about 2,300 faculty and support staff is a rejection of the college’s final wage offer: two years of 0.35% annual increases.
Unions reach tentative national deal with Kaiser Permanente
Following strikes and 11 months of rocky negotiations, new agreements raise wages 21.5% over the next three years and eight months.
Fed up at Alaska Horizon
Horizon is a regional subsidiary of Alaska Airlines, but its 677 flight attendants earn half what their counterparts at Alaska Airlines earn.
New AFSCME 189 contract at Portland auditor’s office
The contract covers 30 auditors and support staff who conduct performance audits, manage the Fraud Hotline, and oversee city elections.
Breakthrough first contract at Labcorp
Outsourced Oregon lab workers unionized. Now they have higher wages, scheduling rights, and no forced overtime.
Strike threat looms at Portland Community College
Raises of 0.35% a year? Yes, you read the zero right. Two unions at PCC jointly declared impasse Jan. 30 and could strike as soon as March 10.
Faculty say they’re ready to strike at Lane Community College
The union — an affiliate of OEA — says it’s far apart from the administration on compensation, workload, and job security.
Refugee service staff win first contract with OPEIU
Almost 700 workers serving refugees across the country will get 2% raises and stronger layoff protections.
OHSU researchers voting on first-ever union deal
Bargaining expectations were tempered because OHSU research has been hit by Trump administration cuts to the National Institutes of Health.
Nabisco settles five-year dispute over temps
Mondelez-Nabisco violated its union contract when it brought in temps to do work that union members could have done.
UAW gets first-ever agreement with Volkswagen in the South
It was the first foreign-owned auto plant in the United States to unionize. Everywhere else in the world, VW factories are union-represented.
California Kaiser strike now in week four
More than 31,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers in California and Hawaii have been on an open-ended strike since Jan. 26.
AFSCME ratifies deal at Central City Concern
A newly enlarged unit of homeless services workers has ratified a contract with 13% raises, $21 minimum wage, and a $1,500 bonus.
Slow bargaining at C-TRAN
About 70 C-TRAN office workers finalized a new contract, but 240 bus and paratransit van operators are still without one.
OHSU’s largest unit ratifies contract
Roughly 8,000 workers represented by AFSCME Local 328 have a new contract, approved by 84% of those voting.
OHSU researchers authorize strike
Contract bargaining between Oregon AFSCME and OHSU has stalled over wages and cashing out unused paid time off.
Legacy workers ratify contract after 29-day strike
The agreement covers around 135 nurse practitioners and physician assistants at Legacy hospitals and clinics.
New crane contract adds $12.50 over four years
The terms mirror those in the agreement the local ratified with Associated General Contractors in December.


