Union Organizing

Veterans nursing home workers re-run union election

A nursing home for veterans held a second union election after management labor violations tainted the first one. The facility, located in Lebanon, Oregon, is...

New Seasons Market paid a union-buster a third of a million dollars

The total bill may have been higher, because the rules don't require disclosure for anti-union trainings of managers and supervisors.

Refugee nonprofit won’t be union-neutral

IRCO rejects AFSCME’s play-nice request and fires a union supporter.

Two more shops vote to join Burgerville Workers Union

Workers at the Montavilla and Convention Center restaurants have officially voted to unionize.

America’s top union leader pops into Portland

National AFL-CIO president Rich Trumka was in Portland for an Organizing Summit — a training for unionists on organizing tactics, messaging around common sense economics, and how to build worker power in the wake of the Supreme Court’s anti-union Janus decision.

Clackamas pet hospital goes union

The NLRB has certified that ILWU Local 5 won last year's representation election at VCA Northwest Veterinary Specialists — by a one-vote margin

Fast food workers announce union at Little Big Burger chain

A group of Little Big Burger employees — accompanied by over 100 picket-sign-wielding supporters — presented a letter to a Northwest Portland restaurant manager seeking union recognition.

At a titanium plant in Albany, managers squelch union drive

At ATI Cast Products, a blitz of anti-union meetings turned a pro-union majority to a minority and resulted in a 285-179 vote against joining the United Steelworkers.

AFSCME on-call workers to Multnomah County: ‘no thanks’

Multnomah County is proposing to recognize 100 on-call workers as part of the union, while leaving 200 out.

Union effort falls short at United Way in Portland

The vote was 12 in favor of joining Communications Workers of America Local 7901, and 14 opposed.

Workers unionize at two more Burgerville stores

Burgerville Workers Union now has majority support at the Convention Center and Montavilla restaurants.

Hospital support workers unionize – by one vote – at Providence Portland

In a real-life demonstration that every vote counts, support staff at Providence Portland hospital have won a union by a single vote — after an on-again, off-again campaign that goes back 20 years.

Police union raids AFSCME at 911

Members of the Portland Police Association hand-delivered letters to emergency communications dispatchers inviting them to leave their union, AFSCME, and instead join the police union.

Reversing course, OHSU agrees to recognize grad student union

The two sides have agreed to begin bargaining by March 15.

The untold story of a big union win

Before Oregon home care workers unionized in 2001, they earned $8.14 an hour and had no benefits, not even workers’ comp for injuries on the job. A new documentary tells their story.

Charter bus firm would rather give up contract than operate union

When drivers voted to unionize, MTR Western terminated its contract to run Columbia County’s CC Rider transit service.

THE REST OF THE STORY: A look back at some of the stories we reported in 2018 … and what happened afterward

Updates on the union campaigns at Precision Castparts, New Seasons, and Reed College, plus President Trump's "infrastructure Neverland"

A union for political campaign workers?

Campaign Workers Guild signs its first Oregon contract with state representative Teresa Alonso Leon.

Hawthorne Burgerville becomes the third to formally unionize

Meanwhile, Burgerville has agreed to no tangible improvements since contract bargaining began in May.

OHSU fights effort by grad student researchers to unionize

They work over 50 hours a week doing lab research, but OHSU says they're students, not workers.