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Kelli Byrd of Local 328 leaves union membership information on a doorstep during the recent AFSCME Strong blitz weekend. |
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VIDEO: Watch AFSCME members take action to defend and strengthen our union!
The recent AFSCME Strong membership blitz and week of follow-up activities was one of our union’s most successful events ever!
Over MLK weekend, about 100 Oregon AFSCME members and staff, with assistance from AFSCME International and the Oregon AFL-CIO, canvassed greater Portland and visited with Local 88 (Multnomah County) and Local 328 (OHSU) workers who had not signed AFSCME membership cards. Those one-on-one discussions yielded almost 300 new members into our union.
Local unions statewide continued the momentum of the blitz weekend with a variety of AFSCME Strong events staged in local worksites. As we continue to receive membership cards from those activities, the count is currently near 600 cards signed. That total includes both new membership cards and cards signed by current members as recommitments to the union in the face of potential anti-union ballot measures we could face this fall.
Two initiatives, Initiative Petition (IP) 62 and IP 69, could make their way to the 2016 ballot. If passed, either would make it harder for working Oregonians to have access to good jobs, safe working conditions and fair pay.
IP 62, funded by former Bill Sizemore backer and the single largest donor in Oregon political history Loren Parks, interferes with an employer's right to negotiate with employees and requires that some employees get all the benefits of being in a union without having to share in the costs of supporting that union. IP 62 also limits the kind of activities union members can pay for, making it especially hard for union members to advocate for better worker policies. The measure is designed to make it impossible to run an organization that advocates for unions.
Additionally, corporate lawyer Jill Gibson and the timber industry have filed their fifth anti-worker measure of 2016: IP 69. It actually requires that employers discriminate between union and non-union employees. This creates two classes of workers, and foments a hostile work environment that will likely lead to the same result of lower pay, fewer benefits and less workplace safety for Oregonians.
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