Reed College housing advisors planning ‘More Work, More Pay’ Pick in conjunction with commencement   Portland, OR --  Reed College Housing Advisors (HAs) and their supporters will picket on campus May 19 in conjunction with the college’s commencement ceremony to protest Reed’s refusal to settle a fair first contract for HAs. The picket is sponsored by Portland Jobs with Justice, a coalition of over 100 labor, faith, community and student organizations and individual activists.    Reed HAs have been bargaining for a first contract that includes additional compensation to recognize additional work the college added to their job duties. Currently HAs receive a stipend for their campus housing and meal plan, but no extra pay. In 2023, the college started requiring HAs to perform security rounds without adjusting the compensation package -- driving the group of 45 HAs to form the Union of Reed College Housing Advisors (URCHA), represented by OPEIU Local 11.   “During bargaining we have made reasonable proposals for an increase in compensation, but despite increasing our duties, the college continues to not offer us anything more than we already make,” said Eli Rall, a junior at Reed College and a member of the URCHA bargaining team.    The HAs began bargaining for a first contract in February 2024 and have consistently asked for economic proposals that provide more pay to recognize the added job duties. OPEIU Local 11 estimates that its proposals would add less than $200,000 per year to Reed’s budget for HAs, roughly 0.1% of the institution’s $150 million budget. For over a year, Reed College administrators have continued to say that the current stipend for room and board is compensation enough.    If a contract is not settled this month, about 15 HAs will graduate without a union contract because of the college’s obstinance and delays at the negotiating table. HAs will picket at commencement to show their grievances with the college in a way Reed cannot ignore.    “We have been unionized since the beginning of my junior year, and the fact that I will be leaving Reed without a fair contract is what pushes me towards my decision to carry a picket sign at graduation,” said Max Costigan, a senior at Reed College and a member of the URCHA bargaining team. “While I wish that I could celebrate commencement with a fair contract, the reality is that we don't yet have one and I do not feel the college will listen to any other action. The picket sign that I will be carrying across the stage is for any HA that comes after me that continues the work towards a first contract.”    The picket will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 19 near the college’s Great Lawn on the south side of campus. Reed alumni, community supporters and students are welcome to join the picket line, as some HAs may be unable to attend due to the college’s lax approach to security and protections for international students and students of color in the current political climate.    “A lot of the concerns our international students and BIPOC students hold is that we will be punished or harmed for speaking out, most obviously and directly by the government through ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” said XiXi Dukes, a BIPOC Reed HA. “Very quickly, a discussion that has become about fair pay evolves into an existential threat for us. That is not fair, and my most genuine ask is to have people join us in solidarity and show out on behalf of those of us who are afraid to attend ourselves.”   ### About OPEIU Local 11 OPEIU Local 11 represents nearly 1,800 employees across five states: Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Montana. OPEIU Local 11 ’s members work in many settings, including local governments, mental health care facilities, nonprofits, and college campuses. Through OPEIU Local 11, employees have a voice on the job and an avenue to equality, fair treatment and economic security. Learn more online at OPEIU11.org .    About URCHA URCHA, or the Union of Reed College Housing Advisors, is OPEIU Local 11’s unit of 45 HAs at Reed. The HAs are the frontline of helping ensure student success at Reed. They help, counsel, and support hundreds of students every academic year. They voted overwhelmingly to unionize with OPEIU Local 11 in 2023.      Respectfully and In Solidarity, Howard Bell Executive Officer/Secretary-Treasurer OPEIU Local 11 (360) 719-1860 – Direct Line (503) 257-6691 – Main Office (800) 547-8902 – Toll Free (503) 367-7295 – Cell Phone hb@opeiu11.org

Greetings, Union Siblings! Mark your calendars and save the date, because we at the NW Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO are happy to announce the 2025 Labor Appreciation Dinner , to be held on Saturday, May 17 , at the IBEW Hall, 15937 NE Airport Way in Portland. This special evening has been held for more than a quarter century to honor our fellow union leaders who have made outstanding contributions to our labor community.  The event is also a fundraiser for Labor’s Community Service Agency, which is, this year, celebrating its 50th anniversary providing aid to our labor community. As previous attendees will attest, much merriment is involved in our annual event, with our silent auction and raffle in addition to our awards program. As we did last year, we will be offering a small selection of premium items for the raffle section of our program for which a person may bid, in addition to the open raffle of smaller items, as in past years. We will have a reception with live music, followed by a Mexican food buffet that was very well-received last year due to high quality and options for those with dietary considerations. Net proceeds of this fun event benefit the LCSA’s labor assistance programs. We are selling individual tickets to the event for $55 as well as host table sponsorships for $500 (this is a discounted rate for a table of 10). You can purchase tickets online at https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/2025-labor-appreciation-dinner . We also gratefully accept donations for this worthy cause. We look forward to seeing you May 17 and sharing in a night of festivities and solidarity.

Trump Is Following the Project 2025 Playbook to Destroy Workers’ Rights The massive curbs on workers’ rights that have occurred during the first month of the Trump administration signal it’s likely that plenty more will follow during his tenure in office. Lawrence Wittner Feb 23, 2025 Common Dreams 14 Only a month into his second term as president, Donald Trump is well underway toward destroying crucial rights of American workers. Currently, the best known of these threatened rights is probably job security, for the sudden onset of Trump’s mass, indiscriminate firing of more than 200,000 federal government workers has sparked a furor. Employed by the Departments of Education and Veterans Affairs, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Forest Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other vital U.S. agencies, these workers appear to have been simply tossed out of their jobs without honoring the legal requirement of due process, including performance-based evaluations. Trump claimed that the mass firings were necessary to save money and make the government more efficient. But the president of the American Federation of Government Employees, Everett Kelley, retorted that the firings were really “about power,” with Trump “gutting the federal government, silencing workers, and forcing agencies into submission to a radical agenda that prioritizes cronyism over competence.” Thus, if Project 2025 does serve as a guide to Trump administration policies toward workers’ rights, we should expect Trump’s future implementation of Project 2025’s recommendations for remarkably severe federal government measures against workers and their unions. In addition, on January 31, Trump announced plans to nullify contracts recently negotiated and signed with the labor unions representing federal workers. Justifying this action, the president said that the contracts had been negotiated by former President Joe Biden “to harm my administration.” Trump selected an appropriate figure to undermine workers’ rights when he appointed Elon Musk as the head of his so-called Department of Government Efficiency . Musk, the world’s wealthiest man and Trump’s largest campaign contributor, was well known as rabidly anti-labor , and had repeatedly clashed with workers at the giant companies he owned, among them Tesla, SpaceX, and X (formerly Twitter). Indeed, by January 2025, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had 24 open investigations into labor law violations by these three firms, including alleged surveillance of employees at Twitter and interference with union organizing at Tesla. In turn, a day after the NLRB accused Musk’s SpaceX company of retaliating against workers who had dared to criticize his employment practices, SpaceX filed a lawsuit to have the NLRB, established by Congress in 1935, declared unconstitutional and terminated. Not surprisingly, Trump moved quickly to paralyze the activities of the NLRB, a federal agency created to guarantee American workers’ right to union representation. By firing the acting NLRB chair , Gwynne Wilcox, long before her term of office ended in 2026, Trump not only acted illegally, but left the NLRB without the quorum necessary to operate, thus shutting it down. “We’re fighting that tooth and nail,” declared AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler . The firing of Wilcox “did exactly what Trump wanted to do, which was to stymie the one agency that workers rely on when they’re in an organizing drive and taking risks and getting fired. They no longer have the board they need to protect them.” As part of the same attack upon the NLRB, Trump fired Jennifer Abruzzo , the agency’s general counsel, and replaced her with a Republican loyalist. During her tenure, Abruzzo had issued a series of memos that prohibited common anti-labor practices by corporations. These memos banned abusive electronic monitoring and surveillance of workers on the job, captive audience meetings (in which workers were forced to listen to anti-union pep talks), and severance agreements with overly broad non-disparagement and confidentiality sections (which prevented former workers from discussing workplace issues). These pro-worker directives and more were quickly reversed by her Republican successor at the NLRB. The Trump administration also launched a devastating assault on another federal agency established to safeguard workers’ rights, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to bar workplace discrimination, the EEOC, too, lost the ability to continue operations when Trump quickly fired two of its commissioners. An administration official maintained that the two dismissed EEOC commissioners were “far-left appointees with radical records.” These challenges to the independence and functioning of both agencies are quite extraordinary . The presidential removal of an NLRB board member and of two EEOC commissioners is unprecedented, for none have ever been fired before in the long histories of both agencies. Moreover, by congressional statute, these are independent federal entities, ostensibly shielded from presidential interference. And now, thanks to this interference, they are unable to operate. As these and other curbs on workers’ rights have all occurred during the first month of the Trump administration, it’s likely that plenty more will follow during his tenure in office. And there are numerous indications that that they will. After all, the playbook for much of what the Trump administration has done so far―such as its mass firing of federal workers―is Project 2025 , the Heritage Foundation-developed blueprint for Trump’s second term, and one of its key architects is Russell Vought , appointed by Trump as the new White House budget director. As an Associated Press dispatch notes, this office is “one of the most influential positions in the federal government,” acting “as a nerve center for the White House, developing its budget, policy priorities, and agency rule-making.” Thus, if Project 2025 does serve as a guide to Trump administration policies toward workers’ rights, we should expect Trump’s future implementation of Project 2025’s recommendations for remarkably severe federal government measures against workers and their unions. These include banning public employee unions, as well as empowering the states to ban private sector unions and ignore federal minimum wage, overtime pay, and child labor laws. All told, these developments are forcing American workers to address the old union question: “Which Side Are You On?” .

About the NORTHwEST Oregon Labor Council We are one of nearly 500 state and local labor councils of the AFL-CIO and are the heart of the labor movement. We are democratically elected bodies dedicated to represent the interests of working people at the state and local level. We mobilize our members and community partners to advocate for social and economic justice and we strive daily to vanquish oppression and make our communities better for all people — regardless of race, color, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, or ethnic or national origin. OUR AFFILIATE MEMBERS View All Affiliates OUR TEAM President Scott Zadow IBEW Local 48 1st Vice President Rob Martineau AFSCME Local 189 At Large Member - Position 1 Will Tucker LiUNA Local 483 At Large Member - Position 3 Lorne Bulling Ironworkers Local 29 At Large Member - Position 6 Carol Krohn IAM District 24 Appointed Position 8 - Arts, Entertainment & Events Rose Etta Venetucci IATSE Local 28 Appointed Position 11 - Metal Trades Brian Richart Boilermakers Local 104 Appointed Position 14 - Public Employee Council Section Isaac McLennan IAFF Local 43 Columbia County Board Seat Ben Heurung Boilermakers Local 104 Washington County Board Seat Patricia Rodrigues AFT, OSEA Local 6732 Executive Secretary-Treasurer Laurie Wimmer UFCW Local 555 2nd Vice President Tracey Powers OPEIU Local 11 At Large Member - Position 2 Taylor Almond BCTGM Local 114 At Large Member - Position 5 Sarah Curtis AFSCME Local 328 At Large Member - Position 7 Ed Barnes IBEW Local 48 Appointed Position 9 - Building & Construction Trades Randall Friesen Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 290 Appointed Position 13 - Provision Trades Madison Walters UFCW Local 555 Multnomah County Board Seat Fiona Yau-Luu UFCW Local 555 Clackamas County Board Seat Austin DePaolo Teamsters Local 223

OUR AFFILIATE MEMBERS AFGE - Government Employees ... AFM - Musicians ... AFSCME - State, County, & Municipal Employees ... AFT - Teachers ... APWU - Postal Workers ... ATU - Transit Workers ... Annual Payers ... BAC - Bricklayers ... BCTGM - Bakery Workers ... CWA - Communications Workers ... DALU - Directly Affiliated Labor Unions ... GMP-USW - Glass, Molders, & Pottery ... HFIAW - Insulators ... IAFF - Fire Fighters ... IAM - Machinists ... IATSE - Stage Employees ... IBB - Biolermakers ... IBEW - Electrical Workers ... IBT - Teamsters ... IFPTE - Professional & Technical Engineers ... IUEC - Elevator Constructors ... IUOE - Operating Engineers ... IUPAT - Painters & Glaziers ... IW - Ironworkers ... LIUNA - Laborers ... MM&P - Masters, Mates, & Pilots ... NALC - Letter Carriers ... OPCMIA - Plasterers & Cement Masons ... OPEIU - Office & Professional Employees ... SAG-AFTRA - Screen Actors - TV & Radio ... SIU - Seafarers ... SMART - Sheet Metal Workers ... UA - Plumbers and Pipefitters ... UAW - Autoworkers ... UFCW - Food and Commercial Workers ... USW - Steelworkers ...

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