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Oregon

Oregon Nurses End 46-Day Strike With Pay And Staffing Agreements

March 4, 2025 Kari Thompson, Labor Notes. , , , , , ,
After 46 days on the picket line, nurses walked back into eight Providence hospitals across Oregon in good spirits after ratifying a new contract with their employer February 26. Their effort was bolstered by striking doctors, nurse practitioners, and other hospitalists at Providence St. Vincent’s, and doctors, nurses, and midwives at the Providence Women’s Clinics. The agreements for the 5,000 nurses, who are represented by Oregon Nurses Association (ONA), include improvements in staffing language, pay raises, and pay for missed meals or breaks during a shift. They had rejected a proposal in early February, voting to stay on strike.

Week Three: Oregon’s Largest Healthcare Workers Strike

January 28, 2025 Lyn Neeley, Workers World. , , , , ,
Portland, Oregon - Providence Health & Services’ health care workers are entering the third week of the largest nurse’s strike in Oregon’s history. Nearly 5,000 nurses, physicians, clinicians, midwives and other medical professionals from eight Portland area hospitals are demanding decent health care benefits, safe staffing, competitive wages and the hiring of more caregivers. Providence pays some of the lowest wages, and its workers have among the worst health care benefits in the region. When sick, nurses are forced to use their vacation days, stay home without pay or come to work sick, because Providence doesn’t provide sick time!

Nurses And Doctors Are On Strike At Eight Oregon Hospitals

January 15, 2025 Kari Thompson, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Declaring that understaffing had them “running on empty,” 5,000 nurses, doctors, midwives, and nurse practitioners walked off the job January 10 in an open-ended strike at Providence Health and Services, the dominant hospital chain in the Pacific Northwest. The strikers work at eight hospitals plus women’s health clinics across Oregon. They’re demanding proper staffing, affordable health insurance, and competitive pay that can attract and retain seasoned workers. “I’ve been with Providence for over 30 years, and I have seen what’s changed,” said medical-surgical nurse Kim Martin at Providence Portland Medical Center.

Portland Continues To Demand An End Of US Aid To Israel

November 13, 2024 Omar Gil, Fight Back! News. , , , , , ,
Portland, OR – On Saturday November 9, nearly a hundred people gathered at Sunnyside Park in southeast Portland for a rally and march organized by Portland for Palestine (P4P). Protesters took to the streets to showing solidarity with Palestine and refusing to allow the election outcome to undercut the struggle for Palestinian liberation. P4P member Kacey DeSantis opened with, “The election has been called but our demands remain the same! End all U.S. aid to Israel! End the billions of unrestricted taxpayer dollars being sent to the settler state committing a genocide! Palestine and the death of an estimated 200,000 women, men and children is not an afterthought!

Portland Grocery Workers Strike Together

October 30, 2024 Paul Kirk-Davidoff, Labor Notes. , , , , ,
Over Labor Day weekend, 5,500 grocery workers in Portland, Oregon, went on strike across 38 stores—and two unions. A thousand workers at 10 New Seasons Markets, members of an independent union seeking a first contract, struck for one day on September 1, in their first union-wide strike. And 4,500 members of Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 walked out of 28 Fred Meyer supermarket-department stores August 28 on a seven-day strike. This month they reached and ratified a tentative agreement. Though the two unions did not coordinate their strike plans—both chose Labor Day because it’s a big grocery shopping weekend—workers at New Seasons donated leftover food from their one-day strike to Fred Meyer picket lines

The First Gas Utility Sued For Climate Deception

October 16, 2024 Emily Sanders, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
For the first time, a gas utility could be on the hook for its role in deceiving the public about the climate crisis. Multnomah, Oregon, has added NW Natural — Oregon’s oldest and largest supplier of “natural” gas, also known as fossil or methane gas — to the list of defendants in a lawsuit that seeks to make fossil fuel companies pay $52 billion for their role in the deadly 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome. NW Natural “has routinely misrepresented” the climate harms of gas while undermining the energy transition “in an effort to frighten customers and discourage policy makers from using their authority to protect the public,” according to the county’s amended complaint.

Dispatch From The Boeing Picket Lines

September 27, 2024 Samuel Karlin, Left Voice. , , , , ,
When I booked a trip to the Pacific Northwest back in April, I didn’t think for a second that it would align perfectly with the largest strike in the United States so far this year. I just thought I’d be hiking and see the world’s largest rubber chicken in Seattle. But then 33,000 machinists at Boeing voted overwhelmingly to strike, despite the International Association of Machinists bureaucracy pushing workers to accept a sell-out contract. Less than a week later I was lucky enough to meet some of these workers on the picket lines. The flight from Newark to Seattle was six hours on a Boeing plane, so even before reaching the picket I was reminded of just how different mine and so many people’s lives would be if not for the machines these workers build.

Striking Nurses: ‘Patients Over Profits’

June 30, 2024 Lyn Neeley, Workers' World. , , , , ,
Portland, Oregon - Over 3,000 nurses from six Providence Corporation hospitals across Oregon completed a three-day strike on June 20, carrying signs saying, “Patients over profits.” Since December, the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) has been in negotiations with Providence for a contract that ensures safe staffing ratios, better hours, higher pay and improved health care benefits. The striking nurses shouted: “Heroes treated like zeros!” Providence, one of Oregon’s largest corporations, owns one-quarter of Oregon’s health care market. The yearly income of Providence CEOs has risen to $10 million.

State Agency Met Privately With Oil-By-Rail Firm Ahead Of Permitting

May 14, 2024 Nick Cunningham, DeSmog. , , , , , ,
Oregon state environmental regulators are deciding whether to issue an air permit for a contested oil-by-rail operation in Portland, a site that received local approval after a deal worked out in private between the company and city officials. Now, new documents show that the state agency also met privately with the company before the application was submitted.  The agency said the meeting was informational and involved no commitments. But for groups that oppose oil-by-rail in Portland, the documents add to the sense that multiple layers of government are favoring the company’s interests over public health and safety. 

More Than 400 Lab Professionals At LabCorp Win A Union

May 9, 2024 Stand, Portside. , , ,
Portland, OR - The lab professionals employed by the medical lab services company, LabCorp of America, held a union election from March 1-3 where 434 workers voted to join together in a union with the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP), a local affiliate of the 1.7 million-member AFT. These healthcare professionals work at labs within seven Legacy Health facilities in Oregon and Washington, including Emanuel and Good Samaritan in Portland, and Salmon Creek (WA). “I am excited that lab professionals at LabCorp have finally won a union and can now advocate for better wages, benefits, and working conditions,” says Meagan Hollis.

How Portland Teachers Led The Longest K–12 Strike In Decades

May 4, 2024 Melissa Blount and Matt Reed, Rethinking Schools. , , , , ,
We’ll never forget the day when we knew that we would win. It was 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 21, more than three weeks into the first-ever Portland, Oregon, teachers strike. We were rally marshals, tasked with walking ahead of the march to troubleshoot potential issues. Accompanied by the dull hum of a nearby freeway and the caws of seagulls above the Willamette River, we stood on the sidewalk waiting — hoping that a parade of educators would soon join us. They had every reason not to. As frustration mounted with district leaders and their refusal to address our demands for safe, equitable, and sustainable schools, so did skepticism of our union’s strategy.

Forest Defenders Declare Victory After 22-Day Tree Sit

April 24, 2024 Unicorn Riot. , , , , , ,
Josephine County, OR – Environmentalists are declaring victory after occupying a stand of old growth forest for three weeks to prevent trees from being logged. Forest defenders launched a tree sit on April 1 to prevent Boise Cascade Wood Products, the timber company who bought the logging rights, from cutting a stand of mature trees which represents some of the last remaining intact old growth in the region. For 22 days, community members occupied a patch of old growth forest that sits inside the boundaries of the Poor Windy Forest Management Plan.

Forest Defenders Launch Tree Sit To Stop Old Growth Logging

April 8, 2024 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , ,
Josephine County, Oregon — In rural southern Oregon, community members are reigniting a dormant battle against logging. On the morning of April 1, a group of activists walked onto federally-managed public lands set to be logged. Climbers scaled an old growth ponderosa pine and hoisted a wooden platform over 100 feet into the air, suspended from the tree. It’s from this perch that a protester is now blocking access to a swathe of old growth forest at risk of being cut down. The blockade is preventing logging that’s part of the Poor Windy Forest Management Plan.

Indigenous Community Care: Traditions Of Reciprocity

April 2, 2024 Crystal Arnold, Grassroots Economic Organizing. , , ,
Today, Indigenous culture is sustained and celebrated in Southern Oregon through the leadership of people like Teresa Cisneros and Jasi Swick at the SOESD Indian Education program. They gather a group weekly in both Jackson and Josephine counties, and offer the chance for Native families to practice traditional ways, such as talking circles, stories, dances, crafting and beadwork. “As an Indian educator, there are two reasons that I am interested in the Offers and Needs Market: Social emotional learning and place-based education,” explained Teresa.

Strike Threat Wins In Confrontation Over Remote Work

March 13, 2024 Michelle DuBarry, Labor Notes. , , , , , ,
When “Reclaim your Momentum” was unveiled as the theme for Portland Community College’s 2023 in-service training, it struck a discordant note with members of my union, the PCC Federation of Faculty and Academic Professionals. We hadn’t lost our momentum so much as we’d been subjected to two years of organizational restructuring in the midst of a global pandemic. The reorganization had concentrated power at the top, and now the college president was rolling out her plan to end the flexible work arrangements developed for the pandemic.
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