Oregon/Washington

Supporters will go to the union salon for a haircut, and show their union colors.

150 workers at a Wilsonville Xerox plant have been working without a contract since July.

The state AFL-CIO released its ranking of Washington lawmakers, and it wasn't pretty.

If no agreement is reached, workers expect to strike or be locked out the day after Labor Day.

The national AFL-CIO has released its interim rating of members of Congress for 2011.

Twenty-two workers at Free Geek, a local computer recycler, ratified their first union contract July 19.

Oregon Law Center plans to lay off a third of its unionized staff, as managers remain untouched.

Oregon lawmakers wrapped up the 2011 Legislative session June 30. If there was anything memorable in it for working people, it was that lawmakers finally cut corporate tax breaks down to size … except when they were giving out new ones. It was also the year that the Oregon Legislature gave state agencies a new aspirational goal: Lay off managers, not just front-line state employees. In a state with 9.6 percent unemployment, the closest lawmakers got to passing a jobs bill was a pilot project that will employ some workers on energy efficiency retrofits of public schools, or maybe the new law removing procedural roadblocks to pipelines and other “linear” construction projects.

The first of its kind in the Pacific Northwest, a solar-powered charging station for electrical vehicles opened June 8 at the Portland Development Commission parking lot. It's the creation of Christenson Electric and EV4 Oregon.

Portland has been selected one of eight cities to host Union Summer, a 10-week national AFL-CIO internship program for college students.

In mail ballots counted June 15, Richard “Buz” Beetle was elected to a third three-year term as business manager of Laborers Local 483, outpolling challenger Ron McKinney 173 to 134.

At a paper mill in Wauna, Oregon, USW ratified Georgia-Pacific’s final contract proposal.

Over 7,000 state-paid personal service providers joined SEIU Local 503 June 2, making it the state’s largest union.