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.
Union Organizing
At an autism therapy chain, low-wage therapists unionize
After weeks of comically ineffective pleading by a tone-deaf company CEO and a pair of hired-gun union-busters, over 80 percent of the workers vote union.
Veterans Nursing Home workers join United Steelworkers
A group of 213 workers at a Lebanon, Oregon, nursing home for veterans won a union May 20.
Veterans Nursing Home workers join USW
The union win took place in a "re-run" vote after an earlier election was tainted by management lawlessness.
Nurses at Portland’s only psychiatric emergency facility say they want a union
Since it opened in 2017, Unity Center has faced multiple investigations over violations of safety rules.
Four migrant day care centers join Laborers 737
Workers at four non-profit child care centers in Marion and Clackamas counties voted 61 to 56 to unionize with Laborers Local 737.
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.
