Local labor unions in Lane County invite union members and the broader community to stand in solidarity against the tactics being used against immigrant neighbors and citizens exercising their constitutionally protected rights.

ICE Out Rally Saturday, February 28th at 2:00 PM

Park Blocks, Eugene (East 8th Ave & Oak St.)

This rally is grounded in core labor principles: solidarity across the working class, defense of constitutional rights, and opposition to practices that undermine workers and community safety. Our focus is not partisan, it is pro-worker.

Attacks on immigrant workers affect the entire working class. When any group’s rights are stripped away through intimidation or selective enforcement, the rights of all workers are at risk. Labor believes an injury to one is an injury to all.

We call on workers and community members to stand together and show that when rights are threatened, our community will stand up together.

This is a non-violent, family-friendly event organized by ESSN and local labor unions.

We bring together unions, community organizations, faith groups, students, and grassroots organizations because we believe lasting change happens when movements are connected, not siloed.

To do that well, it helps to be clear about what allyship means in our network.

ESSN Is Movement Infrastructure

ESSN is not a campaign, a service provider, or a one-off coalition.
We are movement infrastructure.

That means we focus on building things that last:

• relationships across organizations
• shared organizing skills and leadership
• mobilization capacity for moments of action
• trust, coordination, and accountability over time

This infrastructure exists to support a stronger labor movement, not just individual campaigns.

Our Members Are Our Allies

ESSN member organizations are our allies.

Membership reflects a commitment to:

• mutual support and solidarity
• shared responsibility for movement building
• showing up for each other when possible
• investing in the long-term strength of the labor–community network

Not every member can participate in every action, and that’s okay. Capacity ebbs and flows. What matters is reciprocity over time, not perfection in any single moment.

How We Work With Non-Member Organizations

ESSN regularly collaborates with non-member organizations when values and goals align. Solidarity doesn’t stop at membership boundaries.

At the same time, because ESSN is movement infrastructure, our organizing capacity, mobilization systems, communications tools, and network resources are centered on organizations that are committed to building long-term labor power and strengthening the network itself.

This focus allows us to:

• sustain the work without burning people out
• build real accountability and trust
• avoid one-way or transactional relationships
• ensure that shared resources serve shared goals

Different Ways Organizations Engage

There are many valid ways organizations connect with ESSN:

• Member Organizations / Movement Allies
  Ongoing allies committed to shared movement building.
• Partners
  Organizations that collaborate with ESSN on specific campaigns or actions.
• Supporters
  Groups that endorse, amplify, or attend actions when aligned.
• Adjacent Organizations
  Organizations with shared values but no formal relationship.

Each of these relationships matters. Being clear about them helps us work together honestly and sustainably.

Why This Matters

Strong movements aren’t built only in moments of crisis. They’re built through:

• consistent relationships
• shared responsibility
• and collective investment over time

By centering our work on our members and allies, ESSN can do what it exists to do: help build a labor movement that is durable, disciplined, and capable of winning, not just reacting.

If your organization wants to be part of that long-term work, we’d love to talk about membership and what deeper engagement can look like.

Solidarity is strongest when it’s shared.

Union Coffee (1st Saturday)

Date: Saturday, February 7th
Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Location: Theo’s Coffee House, 199 W 8th Ave. Eugene
Info: Union coffee is a space for current and retired union members from all sectors and political ideologies to get together and discuss the state of labor and how we can build a stronger labor movement.

Strike Ready Coffee (2nd Saturday)

Date: Saturday, February 14th
Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Location: Theo’s Coffee House, 199 W 8th Ave. Eugene
Info: Stike Ready is about bridging the gap between organized labor and the community to develop the resources to rebuild the infrastructure needed to sustain long-term strategic movements that build true working-class power, strike support, leadership and organizer training, education and comms, mutual aid and community defense,

Grounds for Change (3rd Saturday)

Date: Saturday, February 21st
Time: 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Location: Theo’s Coffee House, 199 W 8th Ave. Eugene
Info: Grounds for Change Coffee is a relaxed space to discuss practical political actions that support workers’ rights and shared prosperity. We focus on legislation and people’s initiatives, not candidates, because accountability and transparency matter more than party labels.

The labor movement has a long and proud history of standing against wars that exploit working-class people while enriching corporations and billionaires. From opposing wars for profit to demanding that public resources be used to meet human needs, labor has often understood that working people are the ones who pay the highest price for endless conflict.

Today, however, we must also recognize that our movement’s infrastructure is not as strong or as unified as it once was. Rebuilding the infrastructure of a fighting working-class movement is essential if we are to respond collectively to actions like the ones we are seeing in Venezuela. We need a movement that can educate our communities, mobilize solidarity, and use our shared power to challenge corporate greed. The greatest power working people have is our labor and our collective action, and reclaiming that power is necessary if we are to defend peace, dignity, and democracy for all.

ESSN Jobs with Justice Board Statement on the recent attack on Venezuela

ESSN Jobs with Justice condemns the recent U.S. military action against Venezuela and the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This action represents a dangerous escalation of U.S. intervention into another nation’s internal political and economic affairs—an intervention that working people in the United States have repeatedly said they do not want and should not be forced to pay for.

The justification offered for this attack relied heavily on long-standing allegations connecting President Maduro to drug trafficking. These claims have been weak, disputed, and largely unsupported by publicly verifiable evidence from the beginning. If this action were truly about drugs or public safety, it would not be accompanied by open discussion of taking control of Venezuela’s oil resources or bringing in U.S. companies to exploit them.

The contradiction is impossible to ignore: the so-called “war on drugs” is being used as political cover for a war over oil.

If President Maduro is a bad leader, that is for the Venezuelan people to decide—not the U.S. government. The United States is not the world’s police force, and it has neither the moral authority nor the democratic mandate to unilaterally reshape other nations’ governments, economies, or leadership, especially when those nations have not attacked us.

ESSN Jobs with Justice believes there are circumstances where international intervention may be justified: when nations commit war crimes, genocide, or crimes against humanity, and when action is taken multilaterally through the international community with clear accountability and humanitarian purpose.

None of those conditions apply here.

Unilateral military action against a country that has not attacked the United States and is not committing genocide or crimes against humanity is an overreach—and it makes the United States the aggressor.

Working-class people in this country, wherever we stand on the political spectrum, are sick of watching our tax dollars fund foreign wars that enrich corporations, billionaires, and corrupt political insiders while we struggle to pay rent, afford groceries, and access healthcare at home. We are told there is no money for housing, schools, or wages, yet there is always money for bombs, military contracts, and corporate access to foreign resources.

This is not about partisan labels. It is about whether our labor and our money are used to meet human needs or to expand corporate power.

Solidarity means standing with working people everywhere—not with oil companies, defense contractors, and political elites who profit from endless conflict. ESSN Jobs with Justice calls for an end to wars driven by corporate greed and for a foreign policy rooted in peace, accountability, and respect for the self-determination of all people.

ESSN Jobs with Justice
Board of Directors

ESSN Steering Committee Meeting
Thursday, January 8th @ 4:30 pm
via Zoom.

LCCEA Info Picket
Wednesday, January 7th @ 4:30 pm
Lane Community College, Building 3, 4000 E. 30th Ave. Eugene

Strike Ready Committee Meeting
Saturday, January 10th @ 11:00 am
Theo’s Coffee House, 199 W 8th Ave. Eugene

IN 2026, ESSN JOBS WITH JUSTICE RESOLVES TO

Continue the work of rebuilding the collective power of the working class by strengthening the infrastructure that makes solidarity real.

We will build a stronger labor movement that is intersectional and moves beyond reactive, crisis-driven organizing by investing in long-term relationships between unions, non-union workers, and community organizations.

We will prepare communities to stand with workers before conflicts erupt through Strike Ready organizing, reclaim labor’s public voice, and expand education and leadership development rooted in lived experience and accessible to all workers.

We will challenge divisions that weaken movements, center the working-class perspective as the common thread across all struggles, and push labor institutions to materially invest, through resources, participation, and sustained commitment, in rebuilding a labor movement that is visible, unified, and capable of sustaining intersectional solidarity that builds collective power and wins.

In 2025

ESSN leaned fully into its core mission: bringing together unions, community organizations, student groups, faith communities, non-union workers, and grassroots organizers to fight for the rights and dignity of all workers.

We have expanded on the network model ESSN was founded on more than 35 years ago, a model designed to bring organized labor and the community together. We focused on;

• rebuilding trust between labor and community organizations
• normalizing solidarity actions beyond election cycles
• supporting workers in active struggles, strikes, and boycotts
• creating shared space for organizations that don’t always work together, but must

As a result, labor and community organizations in Lane County are closer today than they have been in years.

This work was part of a deliberate strategy to rebuild the infrastructure of a broad, intersectional labor movement, one that recognizes unions as essential anchors of power, while also understanding a simple truth: the labor movement must include the entire working class, not just those currently protected by a contract.

History shows that movements succeed when they have labor’s backing. It also shows that nearly every major issue facing our communities is, at its core, a working-class issue. Whether the struggle is:

• Racial justice
• Immigration and immigrant defense
• Government overreach and surveillance
• The erosion of constitutional rights
• Environmental justice
• LGBTQ+ rights
• Women’s rights
• Housing and healthcare
• Opposition to war, fascism, or authoritarianism

These struggles all intersect with labor. It doesn’t matter whether your worldview is socialist, capitalist, anarchist, libertarian, conservative, liberal, or whether you don’t care about political labels at all and simply want a roof over your family’s head and food on the table. If you sell your labor to survive, these struggles are yours.

This work laid the groundwork for something bigger.

In 2026

ESSN will move from rebuilding relationships to scaling power. Our focus is long-term organizing infrastructure, not one-off campaigns, symbolic actions, or crisis-only responses. This includes:

• expanding our network model so more unions, community groups, and worker-led organizations are actively connected and able to mobilize together
• being truly Strike Ready by builds community support before strikes and labor disputes erupt, and to translate that readiness into shared power across interconnected movements
• Promoting worker education and leadership development within our movement that is rooted in lived experience and accessible to all workers
• Strengthening public narratives that frame labor as the backbone of every major social struggle

This strategy is grounded in three simple truths:

• Workers are strongest when they are not isolated.
• Unions are strongest when they are embedded in their communities.
• Movements are strongest when labor is at their center.

ESSN’s is the bridge between unions and the community. Our role is to connect them and help build the shared power necessary to win real, material gains for all working people.

A Necessary Conversation with Labor

Unions and communities are under unprecedented attack and although unions are more needed than ever and workers are more desperate than ever for a strong and organized labor movement, we need to be honest with ourselves: labor is not invested at the level required to build the infrastructure this moment demands.

For decades, unions have faced sustained legal and political attacks that limited their ability to organize broadly in the community. These constraints encouraged a focus on internal organizing, bargaining, and elections. As unions’ public presence shrank, the broader labor movement weakened. Ties to the community frayed, and public support declined, not from indifference, but from the absence of visible, sustained labor engagement.

This was intentional, a strategy designed to weaken the power of unions and workers. As a result, when unions go on strike today, they often do so in isolation, without the broad public support that should surround them.

Meanwhile, non-union workers and communities have been conditioned to focus on performative actions such as rallies and marches, or on political or ideological organizing that often divides movements into silos and fails to build true collective power across the broader working class.

We have forgotten that true collective power comes when workers put aside political and ideological tribalism and focus on attacking the economic systems that are used to control and oppress all workers. Boycotts and strikes are not tools exclusively for unions; they are tools that all workers can use to build power and win.

It is time we recognize the strategic failure within our broader labor movement.

• Winning a strike is harder if the public is unprepared or unwilling to support it.
• It is harder to defend workers if the community has not been organized in advance.
• You cannot rebuild working-class power without sustained investment in shared infrastructure.

ESSN exists to help solve these problems, but we cannot do it without labor’s material support.

In 2026, ESSN will spend a significant portion of our time working with unions to materially invest in rebuilding the labor movement in Lane County. We will push them to look beyond contracts, elections, and short-term fights, and help us to rebuild the infrastructure that makes long-term wins possible.

That means:

• money to fund organizing capacity, communications, and coordination
• bodies, rank-and-file members actively participating in shared work
• commitment beyond crisis moments

This is not charity. It is not symbolic solidarity. It is movement maintenance, and it is long overdue.

The Two Pillars of our 2026 organizing plan.

• The Solidarity Communications Committee (SCC) – Building Labor’s Voice – because narrative power is not optional; it is a prerequisite for winning.
  
• The Strike Ready Committee (SRC) – The most powerful tool the working class has is simple and irreplaceable: the ability to withhold labor and to withhold money

Building Labors Voice

One of the most dangerous gaps in labor’s power today is narrative control. Corporate media is owned by the billionaires, and corporations and the boss seem to always control that narrative while labor is left reacting instead of shaping the story.

The Solidarity Communications Committee (SCC) will start off 2026 by launching a Labor–Media Collaboration project which will work to;

• center union and worker voices,
• provide consistent, public-facing labor coverage in local media
• normalize organizing of strikes, boycotts, and collective action
• connect individual workplace struggles to broader working-class issues
• provide non-union workers with resources about their rights and contacts and support to organize their workplace.

This is a board-level committee and participation require vetting and approval. By building a shared media presence, labor does more than tell its story, it builds legitimacy, influence, and public readiness. When workers take action, the community will already understand why.

Preparing to Win Before the Fight Begins

Over time, the law has constrained how unions can deploy this power, limiting tools such as secondary boycotts and general strikes. But worker-led and community organizations like ESSN are not bound by the same constraints as unions. We can help organize collective action not just in support of a union but around broader working-class issues. But that power only works when it is supported.

The Strike Ready Committee exists to ensure that when workers take the hardest step, (walking out) they are not standing alone. Strike Ready is about:

• building public understanding before strikes happen
• organizing consumer solidarity and boycott capacity
• training community members to show up in disciplined, effective ways
• creating rapid-response systems that protect workers from isolation and retaliation
• and creating mutual aid and community defense resources that are ready when workers decide it is time to take action

Strikes fail when workers are cut off from their communities. Strikes win when the cost of retaliation becomes higher than the cost of settling. Strike Ready is how we tip that balance.

2026: A Year of Investment, Accountability, and Growth

ESSN is not asking labor to do something new. We are asking labor to return to something it once understood deeply: that the labor movement is bigger than any one union, contract, or election cycle. In 2026, ESSN will push labor to invest, not rhetorically, but materially in Lane County. This will help us to;

• build shared infrastructure that outlasts individual campaigns
• strengthen labor’s public voice and strike capacity
• reconnect unions with the full breadth of the working class

This moment will not wait. The attacks are already here. The question is whether labor will help build the infrastructure needed to meet them or continue fighting uphill, one isolated battle at a time. ESSN intends to build. We are confident that labor will choose to step up and build with us.

How to Stay Engaged

The best way to stay informed and engaged is to keep an eye out for our email alerts. ESSN limits our Alerts to things that are relevant to our community and does not use our email list as a fundraising tool. So, if you get an email, it will be worth reading. Also keep an eye on and use our calendar. It is free for the community to use and doesn’t require an account.

Solidarity Coffee is an opportunity to meet and socialize, learn about what ESSN is working on, and explore ways to participate. Held every Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at Theo’s Coffee House, 199 W 8th Ave., Eugene. Most gatherings are small and informal, but certain Saturdays will be set aside for specific committee meetings, for example, the second Saturday of each month, when the Strike Ready Committee will meet.

Our Solidarity Communications Committee will focus on the Labor–Media Collaboration in 2026. This is a board-level committee that will meet weekly. Participation requires vetting and approval.

The ESSN Jobs with Justice Steering Committee which is made up of representatives of network member organizations will continue to meet via zoom every month to provide updates on campaigns, actions, and events. This Network Call/Zoom will generally happen the at 4:30pm the first Thursday of every month but has been pushed back to Thursday the 8th for January. If you represent an organization that would like to participate in our steering committee, you can email [email protected].

Union baristas across the country are on an open-ended ULP strike, the longest in Starbucks’ history, after years of illegal union busting and refusal to settle a fair contract by the company. Workers are demanding fair hours, higher take-home pay, and a resolution of the hundreds of outstanding labor law violations that Starbucks continues to commit.

In Lane County, all but three Starbucks stores are currently on strike. And while Eugene and Springfield have long been union towns, it’s disturbing to see how many customers are crossing picket lines.

What’s especially frustrating is that you can’t throw a rock in this community without hitting a drive-thru coffee stand, yet many of our neighbors not only ignore striking workers, they’re openly hostile to them. Just the other day on the picket line at the 7th Street drive thru, I watched a woman deliberately ignore the picketers while sporting a bumper sticker that read, “The only minority destroying this country is billionaires.” Shortly after, a man attempted to walk into the store and shouted at the workers, “You can easily be replaced.”

Sadly, visible community support on the picket line has been minimal.

I know the vast majority of people in our community support workers and unions. But right now, we’re allowing a loud minority, largely drawn from the middle and upper-middle-class professional and managerial ranks to attack and disrespect fellow workers who are simply standing up for dignity and fair treatment.

It’s time we show real solidarity. It’s time to stand with workers and unions and send a clear message to billionaires like Howard Schultz and Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol: workers are not disposable, and communities like ours will not be pushed around.

Join us this Saturday for coffee and learn how you can support our striking Starbucks workers.

Union baristas across the country are on an open-ended ULP strike, the longest in Starbucks’ history, after years of illegal union busting and refusal to settle a fair contract by the company. Workers are demanding fair hours, higher take-home pay, and a resolution of the hundreds of outstanding labor law violations that Starbucks continues to commit.

Ode To A Scab
Jack London 1876-1916

After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, He had some awful substance left with which He made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a waterlogged brain, and a combination backbone made of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles.

When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out. No man has a right to scab as long as there is a pool of water deep enough to drown his body in, or a rope long enough to hang his carcass with. Judas Iscariot was a gentleman compared with a scab. For betraying his Master, he had character enough to hang himself. A scab hasn’t.

Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. Judas Iscariot sold his savior for thirty pieces of silver. Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of a commission in the British Army. The modern strikebreaker sells his birthright, his country, his wife, his children, and his fellow men for an unfulfilled promise from his employer, trust, or corporation

Solidarity wins

General Strike Support Meeting
Tuesday, Nov 11 / Virtual Event / 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Organizer: ESSN

Social Mixer – Labor Working Group
Tuesday, Nov 11 / 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Organizer: ESDSA

EEA Bethel Mediation Rally
Wednesday, Nov 12 / 3:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Organizer: Eugene Education Association (EEA)

Starbucks Strike Kickoff
Thursday, Nov 13 / 7:00 am – 5:00 pm
Organizer: Eugene Strike Support, ESDSA and GTFF

Yes on 20-373 Campaign Kickoff Party (Protect Lane County Watersheds)
Saturday, Nov 15 / 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Organizer: Yes on 20-373, Protect Lane County Watersheds

OSEA Bargaining
Friday, Nov 21 / 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
Organizer: OSEA

Introduction to Coalition Building
Sunday, Nov 23 / 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm / Virtual Event
Organizer: ESSN Job with Justice

Social Mixer – Labor Working Group
Tuesday, Nov 25 / 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Organizer: ESDSA

Our calendar is open to all local community events and actions that build unity and collective power through non-violent, inclusive, and community-driven efforts and uphold our core values of solidarity, diversity, and respect. We reserve the right to remove any event that does not meet these standards.

[View Calendar] [Add Events]

The faculty at Lane Community College (LCC) represented by the Lane Community College Education Association (LCCEA) are in the middle of one of the most contentious contract negotiations in their 50-year history. What began in March as routine bargaining has become, in the words of many, a “crisis of democracy.” [read more]

Network Calendar

Our calendar is open to all local community events and actions that build unity and collective power through non-violent, inclusive, and community-driven efforts and uphold our core values of solidarity, diversity, and respect. We reserve the right to remove any event that does not meet these standards.

[View Calendar] [Add Events]

Nov 03 / 4:30 pm – 8:00 pm
OSEA Bargaining
Organizer: OSEA

Nov 05 / 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
LCCEA Rally for a Fair Contract!
Organizer: LCCEA

Nov 05 / 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm
Rally on Main St. for Springfield Education Association
Organizer: SEA

Nov 11 / 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
General Strike Support Meeting
Organizer: ESSN Job with Justice

Nov 21 / 9:30 am – 3:30 pm
OSEA Bargaining
Organizer: OSEA

Nov 23 / 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm / Virtual Event
Introduction to Coalition Building
Organizer: ESSN Job with Justice

What’s Up? A conversation with LCCEA member Adrain about the “Crisis of Democracy” at Lane Community College

LCCEA represents roughly 500 faculty members. But according to LCCEA faculty member Adrienne Mitchell, the relationship between faculty and administration has sharply deteriorated since LCC President Stephanie Bulger took office three years ago.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” Mitchell said. “Under the current administration, we’ve had multiple unfair labor practices confirmed by the Employment Relations Board, including surveillance of union emails. It’s really extreme.”

A Crisis of Democracy

Mitchell described an escalating power struggle between LCC President Stephanie Bulger and the elected Board of Education. While Oregon law clearly grants the board authority over college governance, Bulger has blocked board members from adding items to meeting agendas, held meetings without public notice, and even shut down programs without board approval, actions that may violate Oregon’s public-governance statutes

“Essentially, they are literally having all of their authority stripped away,” Mitchell said. “That’s why we’re calling it a crisis of democracy.”

At least one board member has reportedly filed a complaint with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, and another with the college’s accreditation agency, citing the president’s overreach.

Impact on Students

President Bulger’s agenda has extended beyond labor relations. Mitchell noted that the DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) office was dismantled shortly after Bulger took office. This was well before President Trumps reelection and the mandates from his administration to remove DEI programs from universities.

President Bulger’s team also proposed increasing class sizes by 50%. But even more concerning, following the passing of legislation that would require the university to provide students with plan B, President Bulger pushed to close the collages health care clinic, removing student health care protections. These are actions that that directly harm both students and faculty.

Another major flashpoint came when President Bulger abruptly closed the Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) program, a high-demand offering that many students relied on for career entry. “There were 37 applicants for 16 slots,” Mitchell said. “Students spent a year doing prerequisites and suddenly had nowhere to go. There is not other program like that in our community.”

The closing of the LPN Program was done with out LCC Board members knowledge or consent again showing President Bulgers disregard for the democratic process or the will of the citizens who elected the board.

In response, the LCCEA has made student protections a key bargaining demand, seeking contractual guarantees for mental-health support, counseling, and healthcare access.

“We’re bargaining for the common good,” Mitchell emphasized. “Our members voted 99% to support goals that benefit students and the broader community.”

A Troubled Bargaining Process

Union negotiations began in March, but the administration has since stalled talks for nearly a month, claiming unavailability. The union’s contract expired on June 30, and bargaining is now expected to continue through December 19 under Oregon’s public sector rules before likely moving into mediation

The college’s bargaining team is led not by internal leadership but by an outside attorney, Chris Duckworth, who is simultaneously negotiating contracts for multiple Oregon educational institutions. The college’s elected Board of Education, which is supposed to oversee these negotiations, has been barred by Mr. Duckworth from attending bargaining sessions, a first in LCC’s history.

“They actually argued to put that into the ground rules,” Mitchell explained. “The board members, who are elected by the people, aren’t even allowed to go to bargaining.” That is likely because the administration’s proposals, as describe by Mitchell, are “the worst in our 50-year history.”

These proposals including attacks on job security and constitutional rights for part-time faculty, so it is likely Mr. Duckworth and we assume President Bulger are eager to keep the board members in the dark regarding their bargaining tactics and proposals

Organizing for Accountability

To resist what they describe as authoritarian tactics, the union has ramped up organizing efforts. “Everything we’re doing is organizing,” Mitchell said. “We’re building internal structures, rallying members, and raising public awareness.”

The LCCEA has launched a petition to restore democracy at LCC, urging community members to stand with faculty and the elected board. The union plans a major rally on November 5 at 4:30 p.m., followed by public comment at the LCC Board of Education meeting.

Anyone may speak during public comment by signing up in advance or at the meeting. Students will be prioritized on the speakers’ list.

A Broader Labor Battle

What’s happening at Lane Community College, Mitchell warns, is part of a larger pattern in Oregon and beyond. “Administrations across the public sector are just stringing unions along, running out the clock, and pushing to mediation behind closed doors,” he said. “If they’re coming for job security here, they’re coming for it everywhere.”

From the Bigfoot Beverages strike to school-district negotiations across the state, workers in both public and private sectors are facing an emboldened wave of anti-union tactics. Many trace the roots to decades of corporate influence and court rulings like the 2018 Supreme Court Janus decision, which weakened union funding.

But Mitchell sees hope in solidarity. “We need massive coordination between public and private-sector workers,” he said. “Not just coordinated bargaining but a general strike.”

Moving Forward

Mitchell is optimistic about solidarity building. The LCCEA now has over 100 members in active organizing roles, with strong engagement among both full- and part-time faculty. Recent votes show 99% opposition to the administration’s proposals, signaling unity across the campus.

The Network encourages other unions and community organizations to show up for the rally on November 5^th and show President Bulger that as the LCCEA prepares for mediation and the board wrestles with governance challenges, the broader labor community is watching closely. What happens at Lane may serve as a test case for how Oregon’s educators and public workers statewide confront efforts to erode democratic control and collective bargaining rights.

At the start of the strike, Bigfoot Beverages engaged in the racist union-busting tactic of importing out-of-state replacement workers and private security, all of whom were Black workers from states such as Mississippi. This practice has a long and shameful history in union-busting efforts: when a strike occurs in a predominantly white community, companies intentionally hire Black scab labor and security to provoke racial tension, then exploit any resulting conflict to paint striking workers as racist. Not only were the replacement workers and guards brought in from out of state, but the intent was clear, to divide the workforce and the community along racial lines and weaken worker solidarity.

Fortunately, both the striking workers and the Eugene-Springfield community refused to take the bait, recognizing this as a manipulative and racist ploy used by corporations like Bigfoot Beverages to divide and weaken worker unity. By staying united and refusing to engage in the company’s racist narrative, the workers and community achieved a victory for solidarity, forcing Bigfoot Beverages to eventually end payments to the out-of-state scabs and private security once it became clear that their tactics had failed. The workers’ discipline and solidarity proved stronger than the company’s attempts to divide them.

Even though the out-of-state scabs were eventually sent home, Bigfoot Beverages continued to undermine the strike by hiring local scab labor, and several workers chose to cross the picket line and side with management. Now, more than a year later, many of those same scabs are discovering that Bigfoot has no loyalty even to the workers who stood with them against their own co-workers. The company has begun transitioning to AI-based ordering systems, putting many of those replacement and strike-breaking workers at risk of losing their jobs. This underscores what union supporters have said from the start “Bigfoot Beverages’ only loyalty is to profit, not people.”

That is why the protesters entered the tailgate with bullhorns, banners, and signs calling out Bigfoot Beverages’ hypocrisy and demanding accountability from owners Eric Forrest and Andy Moore, who have spent millions cultivating an image of community-minded business leaders while, in reality, undermining unions, intimidating workers, and suppressing the right to organize.

Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, University of Oregon Police chose to side with Bigfoot Beverages, a major university donor by attempting to silence the protesters. Officers prohibited the use of amplified sound by protesters while allowing Bigfoot Beverages to continue blasting music and announcements over their speakers in an effort to drown out the protest.

Police also failed to intervene when Bigfoot employees and supporters destroyed protest signs and property and committed minor assaults against demonstrators. In the face of aggression and threats of violence, the protesters remained disciplined and non-violent, demonstrating a higher standard of conduct than those attempting to silence them.

“We were there to send a message,” said one protester. “Bigfoot Beverages wants to profit off our community’s loyalty while attacking the very people who make their profits possible. We won’t be silent while they engage in racist and anti-worker practices.”

The protesters emphasized that this is only the beginning of a broader accountability campaign to expose and oppose Bigfoot Beverages by calling for a boycott of any business or organization that chooses to support a company that believes it has the right to attack workers, unions, and the rights of community members to protest.

Lonnie Douglas, a board member of ESSN Jobs with Justice, said: “This is the second time we’ve crashed Bigfoot’s tailgate party, and it won’t be the last. We told them we’d be back, and we meant it. We’ll keep showing up until everyone that does business with Bigfoot Beverages finds a better partner, one that actually respects workers and the community.”

Join OSEA Friday night at the Activity Room on the 3rd floor of the Eugene library at 4:30 for a planning meeting

For you organization or group to be a voting member of the Network you have to sign the pledge

Joining ESSN isn’t just about getting your flyer into a chat or having an email blast sent. It’s about becoming part of a trusted organizing ecosystem where organizations give and receive help, where reputations are earned and protected, and where we accept public responsibility for one another. That mutual accountability is what makes a network useful, powerful and effective while keeping people safe.

Why Organizations Should Join ESSN

• Reputation, Relationships, and Reach: The primary reason organizations join ESSN is because of our reputation and deep connections to the labor movement, the broader organizing community, and the activist networks of Lane County and beyond. ESSN is the bridge between our union locals and the community.
  Because we are not driven by any single political party or ideological agenda, and because we have a vetted, trusted 35+ year history of grassroots organizing, we have earned credibility across divides. ESSN creates a space for true long-term strategic collaboration outside of silos and across ideological lines. We bring the working class together to fight exploitation, corruption, and the domination of the 1%.
• Credibility:
  When ESSN sends an alert for an event, recipients understand we’ve vetted and trust the organizers. That amplifies turnout and builds legitimacy.
• Mutual Support:
  Member organizations trade labor, space, training, media help, and legal support. You don’t have to do everything alone.
• Training and Capacity:
  We run trainings on coalition work, de-escalation, digital security basics, and event safety so smaller groups can organize smarter.
• Shared Risk, Shared Rewards:
  We help coordinate press, permits, legal observers, and safety teams so actions are better prepared and less likely to catastrophically harm participants’ safety or reputations.
• Network Infrastructure:
  Access to listservs, shared calendars, template forms, meeting spaces, and a hub that helps recruit volunteers and allies.

The Problem We Keep Seeing: One-Way Use of the Network

A recurring issue that weakens trust in our community are groups that want to tap into the network’s reach without building relationships, being transparent, or reciprocating support. Too often we receive flyers or event posts with no identifying information or responsible contact. Someone in the network posts the flyer, but the actual organizers remain hidden. That puts everyone who shows up at risk legally, physically, and reputationally and it’s not acceptable.

This isn’t about policing security for security’s sake. We understand that people sometimes need to guard identities. But there’s a difference between reasonable operational security and asking others to take risks for you without any ability to vouch for your event. Asking the network to broadcast trust while refusing to demonstrate trustworthiness is a double standard. It’s transactional in the worst sense: taking advantage of the network’s reach while refusing to invest in the network’s safety or longevity.

Safety, Transparency, and Solidarity: The Standards We Expect

If you want ESSN to share your event, here’s what we expect at minimum:

• A named contact person (even if kept private to ESSN) who will be reachable before and during the action.
  
• An accurate event description: is it family-friendly? Non-violent? Could arrests be likely? Is there potential for confrontation?
  
• A safety and security plan: how will organizers protect participants, especially children, elders, and vulnerable people? Are legal observers planned? Is medical support available?
  
• Evidence of relationship-building: prior collaboration, attendance at network meetings, participation in trainings, or other signs you’ve engaged with the network in good faith.
  
• Willingness to accept some shared responsibility: if ESSN puts its name to an event, we need to be able to back organizers and, if necessary, coordinate legal/media support.

Organizations or groups who wish to remain anonymous yet still use the network must establish a trusted relationship with the ESSN Board. The Board members are the ones publicly putting their names, reputations, and in some cases legal liability on the line when the network promotes an event. We will always respect organizers’ security concerns, but at a minimum, the Board must know that you or your group are legitimate and trustworthy.

If your group has ties to an existing ESSN Jobs with Justice voting member organization that is willing to take legal, reputational, and financial responsibility for your event, that organization simply needs to notify the Steering Committee and Board. When the alert goes out, we will make it clear that the sponsoring organization has vetted and endorsed the event. This protects everyone involved while maintaining transparency and accountability within the broader movement.

If you can’t meet those standards, please don’t expect the network to vouch for you simply because you want reach.

Our Simple Flag System

To protect people and preserve trust, ESSN will begin tagging events in our communications as Green Flag, Red Flag, or Black Flag. These are transparency tools, not moral judgements — they help people make informed choices.

Green Flag — Endorsed & Vetted

Events from trusted ESSN network members or organizers with whom we have an established relationship. Accurate descriptions, clear safety plans, no advertised intent to use violence or property damage. ESSN publicly endorses and will provide support.

Red Flag — Unknown / Not Vetted

Events from unknown actors or organizers who intentionally hide identities or refuse to engage with the network. May be sincere and safe or may be fronts, provocations, or poorly planned actions that could endanger participants. ESSN will not endorse. We will label as Red Flag and may circulate with a clear disclaimer that we cannot vouch for safety or intent.

Black Flag — High Risk / Likely Dangerous

• Events that are expected to involve direct confrontation and could produce arrests, violence, or serious legal exposure.
• Events where organizers explicitly plan to instigate conflict without full disclosure to attendees.

SSN recognizes that these types of events and actions may be necessary but ESSN does not organize or endorse these events. If we send an Alert out it will be with the intent to ensure that members and ally organizations are informed of the reasons for and the dangers of attending such an event so they can make informed decisions

This system is about informed consent: when people see a red or black flag, they should know the risks they might face. When they see a green flag, they should be able to trust ESSN’s judgment.

Examples (Generic, Non-Identifying)

• Green Flag: A neighborhood labor coalition with a history of working with ESSN organizes a well-planned, family-friendly rally against wage cuts.
• Red Flag: A flyer for a “family-friendly” action circulated by unknown organizers who refuse to provide contacts.
• Black Flag: An invitation to a direct confrontation with law enforcement or extremist groups, likely to involve arrests or violence.

What Happens if You Try to Use the Network Without Reciprocating

Repeated attempts to use ESSN purely as an amplifier without building relationships or meeting safety expectations will result in refusal to share your events. Members who repeatedly pass along anonymous or deceptive events risk losing posting privileges in our channels. We’ll prioritize protecting people over boosting traffic.

Final Note — Solidarity Is Reciprocal

Solidarity isn’t a one-way street. The network’s value depends on mutual trust: you protect us, we protect you; you show up for others’ campaigns, others will show up for yours; you invest in relationship-building, and we’ll invest our credibility in promoting your work. ESSN’s leaders and public faces are willing to accept scrutiny and risk for the movement — but only for campaigns and partners who show they’ll acti in good faith and be responsible and trusted allies.

Organizations that wish to maintain anonymity or heightened security can still participate as Non-Voting Member Organizations (NVMOs). This allows groups to stay connected, collaborate on shared goals, and access parts of the network’s support structure while protecting the privacy of their members and operations.

If you want ESSN to amplify your work, start by showing up at a network meeting, attend a training, or reach out privately to establish a relationship. Hell, ask about nosh night and show up for a beer and food. If you want to learn more about our vetting checklist or how events are flagged, email us at [email protected].

Join a network that values trust, transparency, and true solidarity and help build movements that keep people safe while pushing for bold change.

No one denies that October 7th was horrific. It was. But to discuss that event without acknowledging the decades of dispossession, occupation, and systemic violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people is dishonest and morally corrupt. What has followed since October 7th is not defense; it is domination, collective punishment, ethnic-cleansing and genocide.

The Zionist narrative has spent decades conditioning the world and especially Americans to see Israeli power as justified, Israeli violence as defensive, and Palestinian suffering as either irrelevant or deserved. But that illusion is cracking. Millions now see through it.

Zionism Is Not Judaism and Criticism Is Not Antisemitism

It must be said plainly “criticizing the government of Israel or Zionism is not antisemitism”. Judaism is a faith. Zionism is a political ideology, one that has increasingly justified apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and expansionism, and now genocide.

Many Jewish people around the world, including in Israel itself, stand against what is being done in their name. They refuse to let their faith be used as a shield for war crimes or as a weapon against truth. Ironically, the ones acting most antisemitically today are often the Zionists themselves, silencing dissenting Jewish voices and branding all opposition as hatred of Jews.

How Zionist Power Has Shaped Our Media, Politics, and Public Discourse

One reason this narrative has remained so powerful is that Zionist aligned interests have invested heavily in influencing the American media, government, and political culture, ensuring that U.S. priorities align first and foremost with Israel’s.

Politicians Declaring Allegiance to Israel

In June 2025, Senator Ted Cruz openly stated during an interview with Tucker Carlson that he “came into Congress with the stated intention of being the leading defender of Israel in the United States Senate.”

Cruz even cited Genesis 12:3 as divine justification for his political loyalty — an extraordinary admission that his congressional priorities are shaped not by the Constitution or the American people, but by religious devotion to a foreign state.

When elected officials openly proclaim that their purpose in office is to “defend Israel,” it raises serious questions about allegiance and accountability.

Laws That Punish Criticism of Israel

Over the past decade, pro-Israel politicians, including Donald Trump and Joe Biden have backed legislation that effectively criminalizes dissent against Israel.

The Israel Anti-Boycott Act (S.720 / H.R.1697), co-sponsored by Cruz, sought to penalize Americans who support boycotts of Israel or its illegal settlements.

This is not abstract — these bills threaten core First Amendment rights, making political protest and consumer choice punishable. Such efforts are not about protecting Jewish people from hate; they’re about protecting a government of Isarel from accountability.

AIPAC and the Lobbying Machine

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has long been one of the most powerful lobby groups in Washington. Its influence extends across both parties and deep into our political system.

AIPAC and its affiliates spend tens of millions of dollars each election cycle supporting candidates who pledge unwavering loyalty to Israel and working to unseat those who don’t.

The result? Lawmakers who serve Israeli interests before American ones, and a Congress that reflexively funds wars and military aid while ignoring U.S. domestic crises.

When AIPAC publicly attacked Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for calling Israel’s actions in Gaza “genocide,” it sent a chilling message: speak against us, and your career is over.

Media Capture and Narrative Control

The same pattern repeats in mainstream media. Stories are filtered through Zionist framing, where Israeli deaths are human tragedies and Palestinian deaths are statistics.

Editorial lines are softened by fear of backlash, funding pressures, and political alliances. Celebrities, journalists, and public figures who question Israel are blacklisted or branded antisemitic. This isn’t journalism; it’s propaganda.

When the same talking points echo across every network and publication, it’s not public discourse it’s narrative management.

As a Christian Conservative, I Reject This Corruption of Faith

As a conservative Christian, I’m disgusted by the so-called “Christian Zionists” who cheer for bloodshed as though it were God’s plan. Their theology isn’t love, it’s apocalyptic fanaticism. They long for the destruction of Israel and Palestine alike, believing it will trigger their own “rapture.” That’s not faith; it’s madness.

God is love. Love does not bomb refugee camps. Love does not justify genocide. Love does not demand blind allegiance to any flag or government.

Real Morality Means Standing with the Oppressed

The Zionist narrative is beginning to crumble, not through force or anger, but through truth and visibility. For decades it relied on control over messaging, politics, and perception but the world is changing. Information can no longer be confined to a few voices on television or in print. People can see with their own eyes what is happening. Israel’s leaders speak openly about their actions, and the images coming from Gaza and the West Bank have reached every corner of the globe. The result is that the myths used to justify this violence are losing their power. More and more people are realizing that this conflict is not Isriel defending itself, its Zionist perpetrating a genocide.

To reject Zionism is not to reject Judaism, it is to reject oppression.
To call out genocide is not to hate; it is to defend humanity.
And to demand truth in our media and honesty in our politics is not “radical” it is patriotic.

If we truly want peace and to prevent future acts of hatred or terrorism we must stop equating justice with antisemitism, stop criminalizing empathy, and stop allowing propaganda to rule our public life. All true Christians and people of faith or conscience must stand with the true Jews and the Palestinians people against the cancer that is Zionism.

Real safety comes not from silence or domination — but from justice, truth, and love.

Union Voices Needed: Testify for Universal Health Care in Oregon

The Universal Health Plan Governance Board meets Thursday, Oct. 16, 9am–12pm, and union voices must be heard. Health Care for All Oregon (HCAO) is calling on union members, retirees, and staff to submit testimony showing why universal health care is vital for Oregon’s workers and unions. [Learn More]

Will Oregon Protect Workers Like California Just Did?

California just passed a landmark law to protect workers’ right to organize when the federal government fails to act. Should Oregon do the same? ESSN Jobs with Justice is calling on our state to follow California’s lead—and we’re kicking off a community conversation to make it happen. [Learn More]

Trust, Security, and Accountability in Organizing

Activist have always had to worry about being targeted while organizing but in recent months, we’ve noticed a trend among many new organizations in our community. [Learn More]

Events

Starbucks workers United Practice Picket
Date: Friday, October 3rd
Time: 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Location: 1895 Franklin Blvd. Eugene
Organizers: SBWU

Rally & March for LCCEA
Date: Saturday, October 4th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Location: In front of the Graduate Hotel, 66 E 6th Ave, Eugene
Organized By: LCCEA

Palestine Will Win Rally & March
Date: October 7th
Time: 5:30 pm
Location: Park Block, 1015 Park St. Eugene
Organized By: RWC / ERSG

Coalitions 101 Training: Building Effective Long – Term Coalition
Date: Sunday, October 12th
Time: 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Location: AFSCME Hall, 688 Charnelton St. Eugene
Organized by: ESSN Jobs with Justice

UO History of Organizing & Activism
Date: Sunday, October 12th
Time: 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Location: EMU Amphitheater, University of Oregon

OSEA Bargaining
Date: Monday October 13th
Time: 4:39 pm to 8:00 pm
Location: 200 N Monroe, Eugene

Walktober at the UO Street Fair
Date: Thursday, October 13th
Time: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm
Location: UofO, 13th st. Eugene

No Kings Rally
Date: Saturday, October 18th
Time: 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Location: Wayne Morse Courthouse, 405 E 8th Ave. Eugene
Organized By: Activist Coalition of Eugene Springfield (ACES)

Melting Ice Public Exabition
Date: October 18th,
Time: 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Location: Unitarian Universalist Church, 1685 W. 13th Ave. Eugene
Organized By: Untied for Immigrant Justice (UIJ)

Community Forum – Path to 2026: Oregon’s Labor Future
Date: Sunday, October 19th
Time: 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Location: Zoom Meeting [CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE]

Health Care for All Orgon (HCAO) is calling on union members, retired members, and union staff to submit written or oral testimony at this critical meeting. Union members make up a massive constituency in Oregon, and the board needs to hear from us about why universal health care matters.

How to Get Involved

• Sign up to testify (virtual or written): hcao.org/labor-testimony
  • You’ll receive all the details by email, plus union-specific talking points to help guide your testimony.
    
• Deadlines:
  • Written testimony due by Sunday, October 12
  • Register for oral testimony by Tuesday, October 14
    
• In-person option: HCAO is organizing a carpool from Portland. If you’d like to join, email [email protected].

What to Say

As a current or former union member, share how much universal health care would mean to you as a worker.

• Explain how removing healthcare from the bargaining table strengthens unions and frees us to fight for wages, safety, and dignity on the job.
  
• Urge the board to listen to everyday people, not just lobbyists and to fund universal health care by taxing the wealthy corporations that profit from our labor.

HCAO is also looking for union staff who bargain health care benefits to weigh in. Your experience and industry knowledge can shed light on the challenges unions face under our current system, and why a universal plan would be transformative for workers across the state.

Next Steps

Join the HCAO Labor Caucus meeting on Wednesday, October 8, at 7pm to continue strategizing. RSVP here:
Labor Caucus Monthly Committee Meeting

“Together, we can make sure the Universal Health Plan Governance Board hears the strong, united voice of Oregon’s labor movement. Please share this call to action with your union siblings and encourage them to testify!“

Date: Sunday, October 19, 2025
Time: 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6075416208?pwd=bm05eW9KUGYxNVV2UW5LOEVlNFFNQT09&omn=83121943562
Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425Path to 2026: Oregon’s Labor Future

On September 30, 2025, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 288 (AB 288) into law, creating a groundbreaking expansion of worker protections. Starting January 1, 2026, California’s Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) will have the authority to step in on private-sector labor disputes and union elections whenever the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is inactive or unable to act.

This legislation comes at a critical time. The NLRB, responsible for enforcing workers’ rights to organize and collectively bargain, has been increasingly hamstrung by political gridlock, budget cuts, and understaffing. When the federal board cannot process cases, workers are left in limbo, often facing intimidation, retaliation, or stalled union elections. California’s law ensures that workers are not left unprotected when Washington, D.C. fails to act.

Why Oregon Needs Its Own Version of AB 288

Oregon has long prided itself on being a state where workers’ rights matter. Yet our labor laws still depend almost entirely on the effectiveness—or dysfunction—of the federal system. As we’ve seen, the NLRB can grind to a halt for months or even years, leaving workers vulnerable.

If California can build a state-level backstop to protect organizing rights, so can Oregon. We cannot afford to wait for federal politicians to resolve their stalemates. Our state should empower its own agencies to ensure that the right to organize is not an empty promise.

An Oregon equivalent of AB 288 would:

• Provide workers with a state-level venue to pursue fair union elections and address unfair labor practices when the NLRB is unable to act.
  
• Prevent employers from exploiting federal delays to stall organizing efforts.
  
• Strengthen Oregon’s reputation as a leader in protecting working people.
  
• Ensure that the basic right to collective bargaining is consistently enforced, regardless of what happens in Washington.

A Call to Action

The Eugene Springfield Solidarity Network (ESSN) believes Oregon must step up. Workers here deserve the same level of protection as those in California. Passing an Oregon version of AB 288 would be a bold and necessary step forward for our state’s labor movement.

We need to urge legislators, unions, and community organizations to begin this conversation now—before workers are once again left stranded in a moment of federal inaction. ESSN calls on Oregon’s leaders to put this on the agenda for the 2026 session and make clear that Oregon workers will not be abandoned.

To kick off this effort, ESSN will convene an Community Forum on Zoom on Sunday, October 19th at 6:00 PM. This will be an open discussion about how we can move forward in pushing our legislators to act in 2026, as well as what groundwork would be necessary if we were to pursue an even more aggressive ballot initiative in the same year.

It is time for Oregon to lead, not wait. California has shown the way. Now it’s up to us to make sure workers here have the protection they deserve.

But here’s the problem: too many new organizations are getting security all wrong.

Instead of practicing smart digital and organizational security, some groups lean on secrecy in ways that actually undermines trust. They’ll use fake names and withhold even the most basic details, while still asking the other organizations and the general public to show up for their rallies, marches, or direct actions. ESSN receives flyers and announcements for events all the time, but when we can’t even tell who is behind them, we can’t verify if the events are safe or legitimate.

Think about it: these groups are asking others to put themselves at risk by participating, but offering nothing in return, not even enough information for us to know if they’re reliable organizers.

It gets worse when organizers hide behind ridiculous aliases. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are people in our community who use alternate names as part of their public identity. That’s different. I have friends who use names that are different from their legal name but it’s the same name they use in their daily lives. People know them, they are legitimate, and we can vouch for them. That’s a real identity.

But when all you know about someone is a throwaway fake name like “Peaches” or “Starfish,” it’s a different story. It doesn’t inspire confidence, and it certainly doesn’t help when I’m in front of union leadership trying to explain who’s coordinating an action. Using a name like that makes everyone involved look unprofessional and unserious. At the very least, if you’re going to use a pseudonym, pick something that sounds like a real person.

Here’s the bottom line:

ESSN has a responsibility to keep our network members safe. That means we cannot promote events, rallies, or actions when we don’t know who is organizing them. The risk is too high. But if groups choose to engage with us, build a relationship, and let us vet them, then we can vouch for them. That makes a world of difference. Our allies know they can trust events backed by ESSN because we’ve spent the last 35 years building those connections.

ESSN also has responsibilities. When groups or activists engage with us, to treat their trust with seriousness. That means:

• We will not disclose private identities without consent.
• We will never share sensitive information about organizers or organizations outside of the Network.
• When we vouch for an event or group, we do so in a way that protects individuals while still assuring others that the organizing is legitimate and safe.

We’re not saying activist engaged in high-risk organizing campaigns need to broadcast their identities to the public. What we are saying is if you want to utilize our Network and our connections to build broad participation, you need to build trust. Give us something to work with. Meet us halfway.

Organizing is about building power. And power comes from trust. Without it, no movement lasts.

Some Practical Suggestions for New Groups

If you’re starting out and want people to take your organizing seriously, here are some simple ways to balance security with trust:

• Build a contact bridge. You don’t have to reveal everything publicly, but identify at least one trusted individual or organization that can vouch for you. That relationship gives others confidence.

• Use a professional name or alias. If you need to protect your legal identity, pick a name that sounds like it belongs to a real organizer, not a cartoon character.

• Create a consistent identity. Whether it’s a name, a logo, or an email address, use the same handle everywhere. Consistency builds recognition and legitimacy.

• Communicate clearly. Provide enough info about your goals, your values, and your expectations for participants. “Just show up” with no context is not enough.

• Engage with networks. Groups like ESSN exist to connect, verify, and amplify. Working with us makes you stronger and safer, and it reassures potential allies that you’re legitimate.
   

“Good security for organizations is about more than keeping everything secret. In today’s world, nothing is ever fully secure, but if you want to be an effective organizer you have to do your best to protect your members while still maintaining your ability to organize effectively.”

OSEA Chapter 1 bargaining
Date: Wednesday, October 1st
Time: 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
Location: 200 N Monroe, Eugene
Info: the Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA) chapter 1 is in a difficult bargaining. OSEA Barging sessions are open to the public so turn out in support of your School Employees.

There will also be 2 other bargaining sessions this month:
– Monday, October 13th / 4:30 pm to 8:00 pm / 200 N Monroe, Eugene
– Tuesday, October 28th / 9:30 am to 3:30 pm / 200 N Monroe, Eugene
Organized By: OSEA Chapter 1

Starbucks workers United Practice Picket
Date: Friday, October 3rd
Time: 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Location: 1895 Franklin Blvd. Eugene
Info: Turn out to support Starbucks Union Workers during their upcoming practice picket.
Organized By: Starbucks Workers United (SBWU).

Rally & March for LCCEA
Date: Saturday, October 4th
Time: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Location: In front of the Graduate Hotel, 66 E 6th Ave, Eugene
Info: Lets turn out for our union brothers and sisters and support their fight. You can see the letters the LCCEA president has written to the board on their websites home page if you want more info on this struggle.
Click here: lccea.org
Organized By: LCCEA

Palestine Will Win Rally & March
Date: October 7th
Time: 5:30 pm
Location: Park Block, 1015 Park St. Eugene
Info: Join us as we rally in support of the continued fight of the Palestinian people against the ongoing genocide and occupation.
Organized By: Revolutionary Womans Committee (RWC) & Eugene Revolutionary Study Group (ERSG).

Coalitions 101 Training: Building Effective Long – Term Coalition
Date: Sunday, October 12th
Time: 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
Location: AFSCME Hall, 688 Charnelton St. Eugene
Info: Tired of jumping from campaign to campaign, starting from scratch every time? Join us for a hands-on training on how to build coalitions that last.
Note Training sessions are limited to 15 individuals, you must register here
Coalitions 101 Training – SolidarityNetwork.org
Organized By: ESSN Jobs with Justice

Melting Ice Public Exabition
Date: October 18th,
Time: 2:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Location: Unitarian Universalist Church, 1685 W. 13th Ave. Eugene
Info: Metling ICE is a traveling public exhibit that humanizes the experience of people who have been detained at the Northwest ICE Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, Washington. [More Info here]
Organized By: Untied for Immigrant Justice (UIJ)

No Kings Rally
Date: Saturday, October 18th
Time: 10:00 am to 11:00 am
Location: Wayne Morse Courthouse, 405 E 8th Ave. Eugene
Info: A rally against Trump and the attacks we are seeing on labor, workers, and marginalized communities.
Organized by: Activist Coalition of Eugene Springfield (ACES),

Note: your organization would like your event included, please email us at [email protected].
There were several events we received flyers for that we did not include. For the safety of our community, ESSN only promotes events and meetings from organizers we can verify. We respect that some organizers may wish to remain anonymous, but if we are going to vouch for an event, organizers must build a relationship with ESSN. This protects the public and ensures trust in the events we share.

KLCC Story: Eugene considers ban on drivers donating money in traffic – OPB

I spent 25 years in the service, and in that time I’ve seen panhandlers all over the country and the world. In Eugene, I have never once seen someone standing in traffic panhandling. Every time I see them, they’re on the side of the road at a light or intersection. In fact, panhandlers here rarely even walk down the line of cars like they do in big cities. People in Eugene aren’t stopping traffic to hand over a dollar, so the whole “public safety” excuse doesn’t hold water. If Skinner has real data showing this is a legitimate danger, let’s see it—but I doubt he has anything. It sounds like he’s just talking out his ass.

On top of that, as a Christian, my faith requires that I help those in need. Part of that means giving directly to the homeless. If the city makes it illegal for me to roll down my window and hand someone a few dollars, that isn’t just government overreach, it’s an attack on my religious freedom. God expects me to care for the poor, and I will keep doing so no matter how “inconvenient” the city thinks it is.

Yes, we need real solutions to homelessness, but criminalizing poverty and punishing those who show compassion isn’t a solution. You don’t fix a crisis by making it illegal for the unhoused to even exist. Eugene should be investing in housing, services, and long-term solutions—not wasting time on dumb proposals that only make life harder for people with nothing.

Email your representative on the city council to let them know that Eugene needs to do better. Chief Skinner’s idea isn’t leadership—it’s stupidity, plain and simple.

MAYOR / Kaarin Knudson / 541-682-5010 / [email protected]

WARD 1 / Eliza Kashinsky / 541-682-8341 / [email protected]

WARD 2 / Matt Keating / Phone: 541-682-8342 / [email protected]

WARD 3 / Alan Zelenka / 541-844-7812 / [email protected]

WARD 4 / Jennifer Yeh / 541-682-8344 / [email protected]

WARD 5 Mike Clark / 541-682-8345 / [email protected]

WARD 6 / Greg Evans / 541-682-8346 / [email protected]

WARD 7 / Lyndsie Leech / 541-682-8347 / [email protected]

WARD 8 / Randy Groves / 541-682-8348 / [email protected]

• The city installed AI-powered license-plate readers earlier this year; the cameras create “digital fingerprints” of vehicles and connect with a nationwide database run by the private company Flock Safety.
  
• Officials, including Mayor Kaarin Knudson, frame the rollout as targeted at serious criminal activity and say the City Council will hold further discussions this fall.
  
• Privacy advocates and some elected officials have raised concerns about access, retention, and potential misuse of the data.

Surveillance by default. These systems treat everyone on the road like a suspect. That normalization of constant tracking erodes the presumption of privacy that should be fundamental in a free society.

Fourth Amendment risks. Continuous tracking and broad querying of vehicle movements allow law enforcement to assemble intimate pictures of people’s movements and associations without individualized probable cause or warrants.

Private company, public power. Flock Safety is a private firm. Even if current agreements attempt to limit outside access, private databases and future policy shifts create major loopholes that can be exploited by other agencies, corporations, or actors with subpoena power.

Mission-creep is inevitable. Technologies introduced for a narrow purpose expand. Cameras justified for “serious” crimes will be repurposed for minor offenses, traffic enforcement, or to monitor protests and political activity — chilling civic participation.

Weak oversight. Vague promises of “community conversations” and unspecified safeguards do not equal legally enforceable protections, independent audits, or citizen control.

I do not believe this technology should be allowed, period. Regardless of the precautions the “powers that be” claim to put in place, Flock cameras are a violation of our rights and will only enable more oppression and tyranny. Law enforcement already has many tools to do legitimate public safety work; this sweeping, always-on vehicle surveillance is not about keeping us safe, it is a tool to control and oppress. We should oppose the deployment and demand removal of these cameras from our city, or we risk ending up with a society where being observed becomes the normal and dissent becomes a crime.

OSEA Bargaining Session – Fighting for the Safety.

This Monday, September 9 at 5:00 PM, the Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA) will be at the bargaining table with the Eugene 4J School District – and they need our community behind them. The session will be held at 200 North Monroe in Eugene.

OSEA is bargaining over safety articles that directly impact staff and students. Aggressive behaviors are at an all-time high. The challenge is especially serious in classrooms serving our most vulnerable children — students with special needs and developmental disabilities.

The problem is not the children. Education Assistants and staff understand the challenges and supports needed to help these kids thrive. The problem is the district’s refusal to provide those supports. Instead of addressing the issue, 4J makes reporting incidents as difficult as possible, sweeping problems under the rug to make their numbers look better. This puts both staff and children at risk.

The union is asking for basic, common-sense safety measures, including:

• A simple online one-stop system for reporting incidents.
• Adequate staffing and training to keep both workers and children safe.
• Protections so staff aren’t left feeling like it’s “their job to get beaten up.”

One education assistant shared:

“I’ve been attacked by kids but I can mostly handle it, it’s mostly hard mentally. But I had coworkers who were in tears in the break room last year because they “feel like it’s their job to get beaten up.” I know I’ve heard similar things from other sped and Significant Needs Education Assistants, it’s a problem that affects hundreds of workers”

This is about doing what’s right: ensuring that the district provides the tools and supports necessary to protect staff and children alike.

Let’s pack the bargaining room on Monday and show the district that our community supports OSEA in their fight for safety, dignity, and care for our children.

Where: 200 North Monroe Street, Eugene
When: Monday, September 9 at 5:00 PM

Together, we can make sure workers and children are protected. Join us!

Crash the Council Meeting: Get the FLOC out of Eugene

We’re asking community members to show up at this Monday’s Eugene City Council Meeting and speak out against the FLOCK surveillance system quietly rolled out by the police. Council meetings are hybrid; in-person testimony happens at the address above (and you can submit written comments if you can’t attend).

Why this matters:

Across the country, FLOCK Group Inc. is building a nationwide, searchable database of people’s movements, accessible to law enforcement far beyond local control. Civil-liberties groups warn this functions as mass surveillance, enabling tracking of where we worship, organize, get medical care, or visit friends—often without a warrant, oversight, or clear limits.

• A serious risk is who might get access to FLOCK data in the future. The company claims it doesn’t sell data, but because FLOCK controls the servers and national database, nothing prevents them from changing that policy or making corporate deals later. We’ve already seen FLOCK data shared with federal agencies like DHS and immigration enforcement despite local promises to the contrary. The reality is that there is nothing to stop this system from one day being opened up to insurers, debt collectors, or private investigators, turning our community’s movements into a product to be sold.
  
• Another danger of the FLOCK system is that it is prone to mistakes. Automated license plate readers frequently misread plates or misidentify vehicles, which can trigger false alerts. Across the country, innocent drivers have been pulled over—sometimes at gunpoint—because a camera confused one car for another. These errors create the risk of dangerous encounters between police and average citizens who have done nothing wrong, adding trauma and fear instead of safety.
  
• We also have to ask: can we really trust EPD not to misuse or share this data? Even if local officers promise restraint, what happens when the system makes a mistake? If FLOCK misidentifies a license plate and flags someone as a drug dealer or kidnapper, that could mean an innocent driver—someone’s grandma on her way home from church—ends up with a gun in her face. These errors are not hypothetical; they’ve happened in other communities. Without transparency, oversight, and limits, the risks fall on ordinary people who have done nothing wrong.

Demand our City Council:

1. Suspend FLOCK use immediately and End the contract and invest in proven, non-surveillance safety strategies.

Event details:

Where: City Hall Council Chambers, 500 E. 4th Ave, Eugene
When: Monday, Sept 8, 7:00 PM (arrive by 6:30 PM to sign up to speak)

Can’t attend? Send comments to [email protected] before the meeting so they enter the public record. Be sure to include your name and ward if you know it. Eugene, OR Official Website

The Network will be calling a Community Circle to discuss the current issues we are seeing with Cahoots and White Bird.

We honor the years of work White Bird Clinic has done for our community, especially through the CAHOOTS program, which became a national model for crisis response. But recent decisions by its leadership including, union busting, mass layoffs, and apparent financial mismanagement have broken the community’s trust.

White Bird has shown it can no longer be trusted to run CAHOOTS. For the safety and well-being of our neighbors, we must ensure a strong and fair transition of CAHOOTS services to Willamette Valley Crisis Care (WVCC), the nonprofit founded by former CAHOOTS workers who bring both experience and a pro-labor commitment.

White Bird still has an important role to play in providing other health and social services, and we all want White Bird to be the strong, trusted organization it once was. That means accountability, transparency, and a commitment to restorative justice.

Your voice matters. Join us for a community meeting to discuss the actions we must take to:

• Support the transition of CAHOOTS to WVCC.
  
• Hold White Bird accountable so they can correct course and regain the community’s trust.
  
• Provide a path for White Bird to restore the trust they have lost within our community.

Community Circle – White Bird and Cahoots creating a Restorative Path Forward
Date: Saturday, September 20th
Time: 11:00 am
Location: Theo’s Coffee, 199 W 8th Ave. Eugene

Rally/Protest Against unfair layoffs at UofO

Date: Friday, August 29th
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Johnson Hall, 1585 E 13th Ave. Eugene
Info: Rally in support of workers at the University of Oregon who are experiencing unjust and unnecessary layoffs the University administration shows it cares more about financial austerity over the wellbeing of students and workers. Join us as we fight for a fair financial restructure protects workers from the Administration’s recklessness.” [Learn More]

Solidarity Coffee, Building People’s Initiatives Together

Date: Saturday, August 30th
Time: 11:00 am
Location: Theo’s Coffee, 199 W 8th Ave. Eugene
Info: Solidarity coffee is casual, welcoming, and open to anyone who wants to learn more or get involved. Bring your questions, your passion, and maybe even a friend! this month’s Coffee is Building People’s Initiatives Together, where we’ll be talking about launching the People’s Initiative Working Group. This group will take the lead on moving forward grassroots initiatives like Just Cause and Housing First policies created by and for working-class people. Together, we’ll explore how to research, draft, and push forward community-driven ballot initiatives that not only change policy but also build power and strengthen our network. If you care about housing, workers’ rights, and building a future where ordinary people set the agenda not corporations or politicians this is the place to plug in. Come share your ideas, hear from others, and be part of shaping the People’s Initiative Working Group from the ground up.

Workers over Billionaires Protest

Date: Sunday, August 31st
Time: 10:30 am
Location: Park Blocks,
Info: Hosted by 50/50/1 Eugene, The working class is the backbone of this country. We build the infrastructure, power the economy, and hold communities together. And what do we get in Return? An oligarchy that exploits our labor and profits from our struggles. A fascist dictator who strips us of our constitutional rights. On August 31st we will STAND UP for America’s working class, for our neighbors, and for democracy. We will RISE AGAINST executive overreach.

LCLC Labor Day Picnic

Date: Monday, September 1st
Time: 12:00 – 3:30 pm
Location: Splash Picnic Shelter, 6100 Thurston Rd. Springfield.
Info: Hosted by the LCLC, Join your labor family for food and solidarity at the Annual LCLC Labor Day Picnic.

After we winning a historic first contract last spring, many student workers received recent notice of job cuts, either the UO deciding to not reappoint them in the fall or to replace their position entirely with students eligible for work-study.

These job cuts are not layoffs in legal name, but in effect: As the University faces a $25 million budget deficit and slashes education programs across the board, the UO chooses to harm its student body by stripping workers of their jobs and our campus of its essential services after little to no communication with those affected most by these reckless decisions.

Over 50 dining workers across multiple workplaces received non-reappointment
notices citing performance issues, which were not communicated until the day notices were sent out. Central Kitchen has not reappointed any student workers.

For many dining workers who have been reappointed, shift availability issues have taken them completely off the schedule.

“It’s really upsetting to not have any real transparency from management or the University,” dining worker Bella Hoffert-Hay says. “These non-reappointments make it evident that our administration does not care about workers or this campus. So many of my coworkers have been here for their entire college careers and we feel deeply betrayed by these cuts.”

Other workers worry about job stability and culture in workplaces which now prioritize work-study students.

Forest Reszka has worked with Knight Library Access Services for almost four years. “My coworkers and I are responsible for pretty much every visible library function,” he says. “Out of the blue, we were all sent an email saying that we will not be reappointed in the fall unless we are on federal work-study. The UO has since walked that back because the date to get work-study had already passed, but now, it’s really up in the air as to whether we will have our jobs at the start of fall term.”

The UO has circumvented our just-cause discipline rights as outlined in our contract by invoking “performance issues” or austerity measures for reasons of job cuts instead of being transparent with our campus community about rebalancing a lopsided University budget the UO has failed to keep in check.

UOSW-UAW interim president Mae Braeclin also lost her dining job in this wave of job cuts. “These recent mass layoffs demonstrate the University administration’s commitment to financial austerity over student wellbeing,” she says. “Working class students require these jobs to be able to attend our university. We are dedicated as a Union to supporting each and every impacted member, but it is not just non-reappointed workers who are impacted. The trust we have as workers that our jobs are safe and secure is shaken. Our union — alongside our colleagues in UA, GTFF and SEIU — will not stop fighting for a fair financial restructure until we know that our members are protected from Administration’s recklessness.”

University of Oregon Student Workers rally on the picket line during a 2025 strike for a fair first contract.

UOSW-UAW launched a form to collect information from workers who have had their jobs cut and connect them with the appropriate resources, including unemployment benefits, if possible. Impacted workers can fill out the form here: bit.ly/lostjob8121.

Student worker job cuts are just another devastating wave of what Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine has called an erasure of “campus expertise,” where around 25 layoffs of tenure-track faculty by September will “deprive students of critical education” in “Palestine, Israel and Middle East conflicts.”

Seven key programs in these areas are on the chopping block: Arab Studies; Classics; German and Scandinavian; Holocaust Studies; Judaic Studies; Religious Studies; Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies; with History; Indigenous, Race and Ethnic Studies; and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies sure to follow with “significant reductions,” according to FSJP’s August 19 statement.

United Academics, who will soon begin impact bargaining over fall and spring layoffs, also spoke out about 13 more career faculty laid off by the UO — including the University’s refusal to “turn over information about the particular faculty members and units affected by its spring layoffs” in an August 18 newsletter.

There will be a Rally at Johnson Hall for the delivery of the petition 10:00 am on Friday, August 29th. The public is invited to attend.

Jesus Himself taught: “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). Christians are to respect civil order, paying taxes, honoring just laws, and contributing to the common good. Similarly, Paul wrote: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Romans 13:1–2). At the same time, Scripture is equally clear that when human authorities command what contradicts God’s law, our allegiance belongs to Him alone. When the apostles were ordered to stop preaching about Christ, they answered: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

The American experiment was grounded in this same understanding, that rights come from God, not government. The Declaration of Independence declares: “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights were written to secure those rights, not as gifts from government, but as protections of what God has already granted. As James Madison wrote: “We have staked the whole future of our new nation… upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

Christians should gladly obey laws that maintain order and justice. Obedience to civil authority can be seen in ordinary things like paying taxes and respecting civil order (Romans 13:1–2), obeying traffic laws and local ordinances, and participating in elections, civic duties, and jury service. These forms of obedience reflect Christian humility, peace, and service to others.

But when governments abuse their power and violate God-given rights, Christians must stand firm in faith. The First Amendment protects the God-given right to speak truth and hold leaders accountable, and when governments attempt to silence dissent, Christians must echo the apostles’ example: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). Scripture also commands compassion for the foreigner: “You shall love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19). Policies that dehumanize migrants contradict God’s law of love. America’s founders created a system of checks and balances to prevent tyranny, and when leaders undermine that system, they violate not only the Constitution but also God’s justice. Moreover, Scripture is unequivocal about the sanctity of life: “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13). The violence against civilians in Palestine is a moral outrage. Christians must distinguish between the modern state of Israel and the biblical people of Israel, recognizing that no government is above God’s law. To shun or oppose policies that enable genocide is not anti-Jewish, it is obedience to God’s command to protect the innocent.

Throughout history, faithful Christians have lived this struggle. Early Christians under Rome obeyed civil laws but refused to worship Caesar, choosing martyrdom over disobedience to God. Abolitionists opposed slavery, even when it was legal, because it contradicted both Scripture and natural rights. During the Civil Rights Movement, leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. declared: “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

True and faithful Christians are called to respect human laws as far as they uphold order, justice, and peace. But when those laws contradict the higher commands of God—protecting life, liberty, truth, and human dignity—we must obey God rather than man. To be silent in the face of injustice is to side with the oppressor. To resist unjust laws, even at personal cost, is to walk in the footsteps of Christ, the apostles, and the saints before us. Our Declaration reminds us that our rights come from God, not the state, and as Christians we bear the responsibility to ensure that no government strips away the inalienable rights endowed by our Creator. These rights are not exclusive to U.S. citizens or to Christians; they are given by God to all people, in every nation, of every faith and background. Therefore, it is our duty as followers of Christ to stand up not only for our own rights, but for the rights of all humanity, defending the dignity of every person made in the image of God.

ESSN Jobs with Justice shall remain independent of any political party, union, or union federation. Further, no member may use the resources of this organization for his or her political advancement. This clause is in no way meant to restrict members from following their beliefs, or to restrict the organization from supporting any person or organization in the interest of the Network but is to make clear that the Solidarity Network is not the tool or agent of any group or individual.

Section 2. Governmental Political Activity

The ESSN Jobs with Justice may engage in political actions related to laws, policy, and governance. These actions include:

• Lobbying elected officials to support or oppose legislation and public policy.
• Supporting or running initiative and referendum petition campaigns.
• Endorsing or opposing specific ballot measures.
• Participating in accountability campaigns, including supporting or initiating recalls of elected officials who act against the interests of working people.
• Educating voters about candidates and issues.
• Hosting impartial and objective public forums or debates. When doing so, ESSN must provide equal opportunities to all candidates or viewpoints to ensure neutrality.

ESSN does not endorse political candidates or parties under any circumstances. We may, however, provide factual, unbiased information to assist voters in making informed decisions.

Section 3: Relationship with Political Parties

ESSN Jobs with Justice is an independent, community-based network committed to building solidarity across a wide range of organizations and individuals. While political parties and their representatives may engage with the Network—such as through public forums, candidate education, or participation in community events—political parties themselves may not be members of the Network and may not hold seats on the Steering Committee.

This policy is intended to preserve the Network’s independence, maintain broad-based trust among diverse member organizations, and ensure that ESSN remains focused on grassroots organizing rather than partisan alignment. ESSN welcomes engagement from all individuals and groups who share our core values of Solidarity, Diversity, and Respect, provided such participation is not used to promote the interests or control of any political party.

Section 4. Internal Organizational Politics

ESSN Jobs with Justice respects the independence of other organizations which defend and advance the economic and political interests of working people, particularly unions.

The Network shall maintain a strict hands-off policy regarding the internal political affairs of its member organizations, including unions and grassroots groups. This means:

• We do not take sides in internal leadership disputes, elections, or organizational governance matters.
• We respect the autonomy and democratic processes of each member organization.

However, ESSN Jobs with Justice recognizes that many of the organizations and unions we engage with have staff and workers. This policy does not prevent The Network from standing in solidarity with workers when engaging with management to resolve labor disputes, engage in collective bargaining or to hold management accountable when they engage in behavior that harms their workers.

Section 5. Individual Political Expression

ESSN Jobs with Justice recognizes that Individual members and member organizations retain their right to speak out publicly as individuals in support of their personal political beliefs. Such individual expression is protected and encouraged as part of a democratic and pluralistic movement, provided it is made clear that such views do not represent an official position of ESSN Jobs with Justice and the Steering committee unless formally authorized.

This year’s meeting is especially important as we will be:

• Rolling out and voting on our newly revised bylaws – a significant restructuring that will shape the future of how ESSN operates and organizes.
  
• Hold elections for the ESSN Board of Directors.
  
• The current Board will host an open forum to discuss the new structure of the Network, answer questions, answer questions, and hear ideas from the community.

We’ll also be firing up the grill for a casual community barbecue (vegan options provided), and you’re welcome to bring a side dish or dessert to share — but it’s absolutely not required.

Come for the food, stay for the organizing, and help us build a stronger, more united labor and community movement!

We look forward to seeing you there!

In Solidarity,
Lonnie Douglas
On Behalf of the ESSN Jobs with Justice Board

The ESSN Jobs with Justice will be holding a bannering action in support of the Teamsters at Bigfoot Beverages, who have been illegally and immorally locked out by their employer since April 23rd. This lockout began when the union notified Bigfoot that it was ending its seven-month strike—at which point, under federal law, the company was required to allow workers to return to their jobs. Instead, Bigfoot chose to escalate its union-busting campaign.

We are targeting Summit Bank because Andy Moore, one of Bigfoot’s owners, sits on its Board of Directors. The Network previously sent a letter to Summit’s board calling on them to suspend Moore until he ends his anti-union campaign. They have neither responded nor taken action.

It’s time to hold union-busting executives—and the institutions that empower them—accountable. Our community must demand that any business operating here respect workers’ rights and follow the law. Those who stand with union-busting employers should face public consequences.

Show your support for the locked-out Teamsters. Join us at Summit Bank at 3:00 PM tomorrow.

The Oregon House of Representatives are having a work session soon on SB 916A, and it is urgent that lawmakers hear from as many constituents as possible to ensure this bill moves forward for all workers in Oregon. This is a critical moment to ensure this crucial bill passes the House and moves forward to Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s desk.

SEND A LETTER

It’s paramount that lawmakers hear from constituents about SB 916A. Click here to send a letter to your state representative instantly. 

MAKE A CALL 

If you’re able to, phone calls to legislative offices ensure that our lawmakers know what matters to their constituents.  Click here to call your state representative right now to ask them to vote yes on SB 916A.  

Thank you for standing with Oregon’s workers and taking action to pass SB 916A. This bill can make a serious difference in the fight for a fair and just economy. If lawmakers do not hear from workers about why this matters, they will not act. 

We’ll be joined by current CAHOOTS workers, who will share updates and ways for people to get involved.

CAHOOTS has been a vital and beloved program in our community for decades because of the dedicated frontline workers who respond to mental health crises with compassion and care. If we fail to act now, we risk losing them to other jobs and allowing county or other stakeholder replacements that will only resemble CAHOOTS in name, not in impact.

Now is the time to step up in solidarity.

Topic: Save Cahoots
Time: May 22, 2025 04:30 PM

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6075416208?pwd=bm05eW

9KUGYxNVV2UW5LOEVlNFFNQT09&omn=86035286475

Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425

Dial by your location
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Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
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Eugene Ore. — Since UO Student Workers ended their strike on Wed. May 7th Resident
Assistants are still having charges levied against them for going on strike. The charges have been
delayed to the summer, but have not been dropped.

“Housing has fundamentally disrespected our dignity as Resident Assistants. We are the ones
that put in the work, we are the ones that are the front face to the residents and yet they’ve
slapped on a $4,000 charge.” said Nikolay Morgun, a Resident Assistant.

Since the strike UO has come down on the charges, from the 4-5,000 dollar charge for the entire
term to 500-1,000 dollar charge for the 10 days Resident Assistants were out on strike.

Resident Assistant Savannah Preston said, “the role split is supposed to reduce stress, which is
ironic with these charges, adding stress and uncertainty to our lives once again. It is really telling
that they’re willing to put this financial burden on us and they’re willing to give us
misinformation and confuse us by adding charges and taking them away.”

“I love this job, but I was also really ashamed of my bosses and of housing administration for
their naked attempt at intimidation of RAs.” Resident Assistant Diego Duarte said, “I was in one
of the majority participation residence halls and yet it took immense bravery from all of my
fellow RAs who did end up going out on strike.”

Calyssa Southern, an RA who was able to get her charges removed said, “I’m the only child of a
single parent, when I saw the almost 4300 dollar charge on my account I was like oh f**k how
am I going to remove it?”

Southern called her mom after the charges were dropped, “I could hear her start to cry in her
voice, she’s not usually a crier at that point I thought she’d get close.”

UO Student Workers currently has an unfair labor practice charge against the university for these
charges.

6:30 to 8:30, Friday, May 23rd @ the Lavender Network, 440 Maxwell Rd, Eugene.

The union announced Monday that 97% of its members voted in favor of the strike

SuperMarketNews.com
Timothy Inklebarger, Editor
May 13, 2025

Some 90 Albertsons truck drivers represented by Dallas-based Teamsters Local 745 have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike over contract negotiations that union members say would pave the way for self-driving trucks. 

The union announced Monday that 97% of its members voted in favor of the strike authorization, arguing that language in the proposed contract “would allow the use of unsafe, unregulated autonomous trucks—putting jobs, families, and public safety at risk.”

The authorization means the workers could call a work stoppage at any time. 

The union said in a press release that it also is calling on Albertsons to match wages, pensions, and job protections enjoyed by Albertsons Teamsters members in other parts of the country.

The Teamsters said that its members “will not accept a second-rate contract” and called the driverless trucks “dangerous.”

Albertsons said it is still “committed to productive discussions” with the union. 

“We respect the rights of workers to engage in collective bargaining and are negotiating in good faith to reach an agreement that is fair to our employees, good for our customers, and allows our company to remain competitive,” Albertsons Companies said. 

The union cited a news story in February from the American Automobile Association (AAA), a national organization that provides services like roadside assistance to its members, that only 13% of U.S. drivers would trust riding in an autonomous vehicle, up from 9% a year ago. And six out of 10 survey respondents reported being afraid to ride in a self-driving vehicle. 

“If Albertsons thinks it can threaten one group of Teamsters without a significant response, they’re in for a rude awakening,” said Tom Erickson, director of the Teamsters Warehouse Division, in the press release. “We’re united, we’re ready, and we’re not going to let corporate greed take our jobs or endanger our communities.”

Article Link Here

Eugene residents spoke out earlier this week against the recently proposed budget which would see cuts across the board to community services and more.

Wednesday night, May 14, Eugene residents have the chance to comment again on the City of Eugene’s proposed budget.

That public comment period started at 5:30 at City Hall.

Monday marked the first time Eugene community members were able to speak to the City Council about the budget.

Over an hour worth of testimony was given related to the budget, speaking on issues like where funds were being appropriated, supporting the fire fee, and cutting community services like the library, community pools and more.

“By making these cuts it seems very much like the City is going the route of only allowing access to those that can afford it,” said one resident.

“Nothing expresses what is important to us as how we spend our money, and as we as a community discuss a budget we are discussing our values,” said another resident.

“From our work, it is apparent that the proposed fee was the best solution to the structural problem,” another added.

“I’m very worried, like a lot of my other community members here today, about the uninvesting from our services, the library, Amazon Pool, Greenhill,” said another.

Councilors didn’t say much in response following the hour of public comment, thanking residents for coming and speaking on their optimism for finding a solution in the future.

“There is a ripe opportunity for an alternative off-ramp that isn’t divisive, that finds ways to creatively embrace, save, and maintain the vital services that were so passionately underscored, italicized, and bolded tonight,” said Eugene City Councilman Matt Keating.

There will be continued public deliberation on the budget every Wednesday for the rest of the month.

view this story on KAVAL News at 5

Most council members however still don’t agree on how much to collect and for how many years.

The city council did vote Wednesday to ask the city attorney to bring back a draft ordinance for a fire fee alternative next week that would bring in either $6 or $8 million and sunset over four years. They would need to start the hearing process on that proposal in the next few weeks to be able to include it in their budget.

That option might let the city avoid further cuts to animal services, closing the library a few days a week, as well closing Amazon Pool and Community Center permanently. There would still be $3 to $5 million in cuts to other, slightly less public city services.

City Council also asked for details on temporarily hiking stormwater fees to bring in about $4.7 million in revenue as a third potential option.

Councilor Eliza Kashinsky was the lone no vote, saying the original fire fee was already designed to be a long-term, more equitable solution that would provide stability.

“Putting a sunset on this, going with this sort of compromise proposal is not the best for our community in the long term,” Kashinsky said. “We’re basically going to be exactly in this same place in x number of years having this exact same conversation.”

City Council member Matt Keating also said he opposed a four year sunset, but voted in favor in hopes of keeping the conversation going.

City Manager Sarah Medary also cautioned the city council about a four year sunset, saying it would complicate the city’s ability to do six year revenue forecasts and potentially impact its credit rating.

Councilor Mike Clark has for months said he wanted voters to decide any fees. On Wednesday, he said he was open to supporting an alternative replacement to the fire fee if it was smaller and had a sunset.

“I recognize the spot we’re in and the outpouring of emails from so many people for weeks now makes it very clear to me that the wise person moves to compromise in a moment like this,” he said.

The city council as a whole hasn’t decided whether to repeal the existing fire fee or let voters decide its fate in November.

The city council will get their first look at the draft ordinance and a second look at their budget on May 21. A public hearing on the budget is May 28 and the city council is scheduled to adopt it June 23.

We’ll be joined by current CAHOOTS workers, who will share updates and ways for people to get involved.

CAHOOTS has been a vital and beloved program in our community for decades because of the dedicated frontline workers who respond to mental health crises with compassion and care. If we fail to act now, we risk losing them to other jobs and allowing county or other stakeholder replacements that will only resemble CAHOOTS in name, not in impact.

Now is the time to step up in solidarity.

Topic: Save Cahoots
Time: May 22, 2025 04:30 PM

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6075416208?pwd=bm05eW9KUGYxNVV2UW5LOEVlNFFNQT09&omn=86035286475
Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425

Dial by your location
{669} 900-6833
Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425

Cahoots workers are also encourage community members to attend the City Council Budget meeting this Wednesday at 5:30 pm to show their support for a worker run CAHOOTS 2.0

Ed Wolf, vice president of diversity and equity for United Academics, leads demonstrators in songs at a rally at Johnson Hall in support of the University of Oregon United Academics on Nov. 13, 2024. After the rally, demonstrators marched to Chiles Hall, where UO and UA teams met for a bargaining session. 

The United Academics union of the University of Oregon has passed a sanctuary union policy to protect its non-citizen and naturalized members. The policy was passed by UA’s executive council on April 21.

The sanctuary union will protect both the employees represented by the union and their families, regardless of immigration status or national origin. The union will not voluntarily cooperate with federal agents in the arrest or attempted deportation of employees or their family members.

This is in direct response to the federal administration’s increasing effort to propose harsh immigration laws without due process, according to the policy. In its effort to protect employees, the union will push for university policy that strengthens workplace protections, facilitates trainings to inform faculty of their legal rights and creates a defense fund to assist employees who may be targets of unlawful conduct by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Ed Wolf, a professor in the school of music and dance and member of the UA executive council, said that because the federal government has targeted international faculty, the union felt it was important to be supportive of workers in case they find themselves in a situation where they are being threatened with deportation.

“We feel the importance of these workers who are non-citizen workers who might be here on H1-B visas. They’re fulfilling important functions that the university does,” Wolf said. “We felt it was important to let them know that they had a resource in the union.”

Wolf said that he wishes the university would “come out with a more concrete stance” regarding issues of deportation and immigration and that the administration, the university senate and the union should work together to “make sure everyone here at UO feels safe and protected.”

UO offers outside resources to immigrant or international students and faculty. According to its immigration resources website, the university cannot offer legal services or advice.

UA is currently working to appropriate funding as “bridge funding,” or short-term assistance that helps someone be supported in a legal situation until they are able to secure longer-term funding. 

This funding primarily comes from union dues, but there is also support from national affiliates, according to Wolf. UA’s national affiliates include the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations. 

A committee would determine what kind of legal funds they would offer on a case-by-case basis, according to Wolf. The committee would not include members of the executive council.

“We feel like we needed to come out strong to help out in a moment of uncertainty,” Wolf said. “To help our members feel just a little more confident in being able to do their jobs here at the UO and be able to feel like they are supported at work.”

Currently, Wolf said that the union is working out the details for appropriating funding for the defense fund.

The Daily Emreld / Maddox Brewer Knight, / Opinion Columnist /May 12, 2025
Link to this article on the Daily Emerald Website [here]

On April 28, student workers’ picket line chants reverberated across campus. The traffic in dining halls slowed to a trickle, and some establishments shut their doors due to a lack of workers. 

These are the effects of the University of Oregon Student Worker strike, in which unionized student workers have ceased their labor until the administration meets their demands. 

As a student who works outside the university, I am not a member of the UOSW, but I stood in full support of their mission for fair pay and better working conditions. 

However, in my discussions with student workers, I realized that many did not participate in the strike. 

Some, such as UO sophomore and Science Store employee Zadie Niedergang, refrained due to ideological opposition. 

“I agree with the strike in many ways, but I’m not striking because of personal disagreements with the union,” Niedergang said. “I looked through the union’s list of demands, and I disagree with some things that they weren’t willing to budge on, such as asking for more political expression rights at work.” 

Others were prevented from striking due to unseen barriers, especially Resident Assistants, who risk basic needs by being on the picket lines.

UO Housing is charging striking RAs the standard rate for their dorms, which they currently receive as compensation for their services. This is deemed a form of retaliation by UOSW. 

Additionally, the strike fund won’t cover the cost of dorms and meal plans.

“I can’t afford the cost of my room and meal plan, and I don’t have a place to stay if I vacate, so I decided not to strike,” Ella Kuhn, a UOSW member and RA, said. “My building’s union rep said the union will cover the costs, but I haven’t seen any official claims of this despite asking several times.” 

This restriction is especially harmful because RAs are one of the groups who most desperately need an improved contract. The 2026-27 change to the RA role will split the position into Community Builders and On-Call RAs, with only 50-75% of housing costs covered. This change would be devastating for many RAs, who only work such a high-demand job for the fully-covered food and housing. 

Student workers in UO research labs also frequently crossed the picket line, but for a very different reason. 

I met with one undergraduate researcher, who asked to remain unidentified due to fear of retaliation from professors and employers, to learn why they continued working. 

“Our professors are unwilling to support us if we strike, so lots of students who would otherwise support the strike are forced to keep working,” the student researcher said.

Most chillingly, however, many international student workers won’t strike for fear of retaliation — or deportation — by the federal government. 

This student said that while they had participated in protests in the past, they became concerned for their safety after witnessing international students such as Mahmoud Khalil get detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for protesting or organizing.

“I totally support my friends who are striking, but as an international student, I’m a minority here,” one international student worker, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation, said. “If the worst case scenario happened, I’d get deported, couldn’t graduate as planned and I might not be able to immigrate here in the future. Every decision I make, I have to think twice.”

To quote the famous labor chant, “the people united will never be defeated.” But what happens when UO administration and the federal government foster division between RAs and hourly workers, citizens and international students? What happens when striking could cost someone their housing, their graduation or their residency? 

A threat to any student worker on campus is a threat to all, as it weakens their collective bargaining power. As students, we must advocate for our peers’ causes as our own and strive for unity in an atmosphere that seeks to divide us. 

The Daily Emerald / Lucas Hellberg / May 12, 2025
View this story Here

The City of Eugene’s Youth Empowerment Program has gained traction over the past year with growing teen participation and programs that now include a waitlist. But despite its successes, the program’s long-term financial outlook remains uncertain. 

City officials say YEP is safe from $11.5 million in annual general fund budget cuts in City Manager Sarah Medary’s proposed 2025-2027 biennial budget, which begins in July. That’s because the program is funded entirely through the Community Safety Payroll Tax, a city council-approved revenue measure.

However, some city officials warn that public trust in the payroll tax could potentially erode, putting funding for programs like YEP at risk.

Program sees growing demand

YEP Program Supervisor Alison Willis said the aim of YEP is “to help improve youth safety outcomes.” She described YEP, which launched in 2022, as a proactive public safety tool.

“Not having ways to be positively engaged can lead teens to activities that are not healthy for them and get them in trouble,” Willis said.

Last year, YEP opened a Teen Center in Washington Park. The program has also transitioned from primarily drop-in programs to regular clubs and programs. 

“In the past year, we’ve really hit our stride,” Willis said. “Now we have waitlists for our programs … which we couldn’t have dreamed of last year.”

YEP activities include rock climbing, cooking, jewelry-making clubs, resume workshops, food handlers certification and lifeguard training. YEP also offers summer apprenticeships that place teens in places like summer camps and preschools. The city now employs one teen who graduated from the lifeguard program. 

“She loves her job,” ​​Willis said. “This is her passion, and something she wants to pursue as an adult that was not available to her before.”

Community Safety Payroll Tax at Risk

In addition to funding YEP, the Community Safety Payroll Tax also funds enhanced police, fire and social services. To extend funding for the tax past December 30, 2028, the council must vote by June 30, 2027 to place the measure on the ballot. 

Some city councilors are concerned that public support for the payroll tax may be weakening. 

Speaking at a city council work session late last year, City Councilor Mike Clark cautioned that there is a risk of losing community trust over the fire service fee. Only $2 million from the fee would directly fund fire services, with the remainder used to cover other general fund budget shortfalls. 

“We’re taking $8 million of general fund money currently paying for fire out to go and spend on other things,” Clark said at the work session. “And I think that’s the part where we are going to risk losing community trust.”

Clark warned that losing that trust could jeopardize the payroll tax’s future. 

“I think the consequences could be failure of the public safety levy in a year and half (and) losing $23 million … to pay for police and public safety,” Clark said at the time. 

YEP eyes expansion

Looking ahead, Willis hopes that YEP can expand into areas like West Eugene and Bethel, where she says youth often face barriers to accessing programs like YEP.

“That would be my dream,” Willis said. 

But whether Willis’ vision can be realized may depend less on growing demand and more on voters’ willingness to renew the Community Safety Payroll Tax in the future. 

Key Points
– Teamsters ended a seven-month strike but said Bigfoot Beverages refused to let them return.
– The company said it won’t displace permanent replacements hired during the strike.

After more than seven months on strike, workers at Bigfoot Beverages in Eugene thought the fight was over.

Teamsters Local 324 filed an unconditional return-to-work notice on April 23, hoping to get back on the job after months of picketing over pension concerns. The picket line came down. The signs were packed up.

But by May 7, the strike signs were back out — and the frustration had only grown.

From Teamsters strike to lockout at Eugene’s Bigfoot Beverages

The union said workers aren’t being allowed back into their old positions. Bigfoot Beverages, a regional distributor, said it won’t displace the permanent replacements hired during the strike.

Union leaders said what’s happening now isn’t a strike anymore. It’s a lockout.

“It’s kind of business as usual for us,” Secretary-Treasurer and Principal Officer of Teamsters Local 324 Chris Muhs said about being back on the picket. “But now we’re picketing because we’re locked out, it’s no longer a strike.”

Why union tried to return to Bigfoot Beverages

The decision to end the unfair labor strike was made collaboratively by the local Teamsters Union and Teamsters International. Local leaders said that, between a lack of support from their elected officials, a lack of community engagement in the boycott and a lack of insurance coverage for striking Teamsters, it was time to go back to work.

“It wasn’t that money was running out or anything like that,” Muhs said. “In fact, now that we’re in the lockout, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is still paying the weekly benefit.”

Muhs said he doesn’t know how many of the Teamsters have been able to return to their former positions. To his knowledge, the Teamsters have only had nine or 10 offers from Bigfoot to return to work. Still, Muhs said the Teamsters at the picket line are still in good spirits.

“Morale is outstanding,” Muhs said. “The company’s actions have done nothing but reinvoke the same frustration and anger as before.”

Bigfoot Beverages responds

In a statement, Bigfoot Beverages said it stands by its April 24 press release and confirmed that it offered former employees a spot on a preferential hire list. Workers on the list will be called when jobs in their classifications become available, the company said.

According to Bigfoot, 113 former employees expressed interest in returning.

Beyond that, the company declined to provide additional details.

Legal battle underway

Teamsters Local 324 said it’s now pursuing legal action.

The Teamsters have not had any communication with Bigfoot outside of responses to their unconditional return letter. Local 324 plans to continue picketing and calling for a boycott of Bigfoot Beverages’ products, just as they did before submitting the return-to-work notice. The union is also pursuing legal action.

“We have 10 open active unfair labor charges with the National Labor Relations Board, and I believe we are filing as many as three additional charges, some in relation to the lockout,” Muhs said.

Until something changes, union members said they’ll stay outside Bigfoot’s McVay Highway headquarters, picketing just like before.

Samantha Pierotti is the food, drinks and “things to do” reporter for The Register-Guard. You can reach her via email at [email protected] with tips on restaurants and local happenings.

In a 13-page written ruling, U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane replaced his temporary restraining order with a preliminary injunction

A federal judge on Friday extended a temporary order, barring the U.S. government from “arbitrarily” terminating the legal status of two international students studying at universities in Oregon.

U.S. District Michael J. McShane said he considered the Oregon case in the “broader context” of the Trump administration’s “unceasing attempts to remove noncitizens from the country.”

While the government did reinstate the visa status of hundreds of foreign students after legal challenges, the government has not “repudiated the prior decision,” McShane wrote in a 13-page opinion.

“Deafening silence has been the only response by the Defendants in explaining, let alone justifying, the actions taken here,” the judge wrote.

McShane said he finds “it impossible to trust that” the government won’t tamper with the students’ legal status again, absent a court order, while the students’ lawsuits are pending in court.

Aaron Ortega Gonzalez, a 32-year-old Mexican citizen, is seeking his doctorate at Oregon State University in Corvallis. He is a wildlife scientist who also was working as a graduate assistant at the school.

A 29-year-old graduate student from Britain, identified as Jane Doe in court papers, attends the University of Oregon in Eugene, where she is pursuing master’s degrees in conflict resolution and journalism and had expected to graduate this June.

Ortega Gonzalez and Doe learned from their respective universities that their student status had been “terminated” in early April in the federal database called the Student Exchange Visitor Information System.

Homeland Security Investigations later said in court papers that Ortega Gonzalez had an unspecified encounter with U.S. Customs and Border Control in 2014, seven years before he was granted a student visa to study at Oregon State University. A government attorney, under questioning from McShane, said he didn’t have any information about the encounter.

Doe had a prior arrest, according to the judge’s ruling.

She first attended Brigham Young University for undergraduate classes but transferred to the University of Nevada Las Vegas to escape an abusive relationship, McShane wrote in his decision. Her ex-partner followed her to Las Vegas and called police to have her arrested at one point, but charges against her were dropped, the ruling said.

After the government terminated the students’ status, Ortega Gonzalez had to pause his research on restoring Oregon rangelands affected by wildfires while Doe was unable to attend a class trip to Washington, D.C., related to her conflict resolution thesis.

Ortega Gonzalez believed he was at serious risk of arrest and deportation, according to the judge’s opinion.

Both lost work and income, McShane wrote.

Once the government restored their status on April 23, Ortega Gonzalez was able to complete planned repairs on a damaged weather station to continue his research and Doe resumed her studies and work as a teaching assistant but may not be able to graduate in June because of the interruption, according to the opinion.

The judge noted that that public interest “weighs in favor of allowing Mr. Ortega Gonzalez to continue his research on restoration of Oregon rangelands affected by wildfires and Ms. Doe to continue her studies to promote civic engagement, community dialogue, and social cohesion.”

McShane ordered the government to give the students and the court a 15-day notice of any future “intent to terminate” their status.

McShane said his preliminary injunction blocking an “arbitrary” termination won’t interfere with the government’s ability to pursue lawful immigration enforcement.

The ruling is an “important step for fairness and due process,” said Stephen Manning, executive director of Innovation Law Lab, which represents the students. Innovation Law Lab, along with lawyers from the ACLU and an immigration law firm filed the suits on behalf of the two students.

“Immigrant students belong in our classrooms and in our communities, not in ICE custody,” Manning said in a statement. “We will continue fighting to make sure that Oregon’s students, the university communities, and all Oregonians can pursue their goals and education free from fear.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Conti had argued in court against an injunction, saying it was moot and unnecessary since the terminations were “set aside,” and the government had adopted new guidelines.

— Maxine Bernstein covers federal court and criminal justice. Reach her at 503-221-8212, [email protected], follow her on X @maxoregonian, or on LinkedIn.

EUGENE, Ore. – Local Teamsters — after more than 200 days on strike — are reacting to a recent announcement from Bigfoot Beverages that the business is committed to keeping the workers hired to replace Teamsters while they were on strike. 

“When Teamsters Locals 206 and 324, took employees out on a lengthy strike, Bigfoot Beverages, in order to continue operating and serving the greater Eugene community, and as allowed by law, hired team members to permanently replace those who were on strike,” said Anne Marie Levis, a PR spokesperson for the company in a written statement issued on April 24. 

The Teamsters offered an unconditional return to work for those on strike, but Bigfoot Beverages said they will not displace current team members in the process.

Bigfoot said Teamsters can return to work if they request to be placed on a preferential hiring list and if there is an opening in their job classification. 

Local Teamsters claim this is illegal. In a joint statement from Jeff Padellaro, Director of the Teamsters Brewery, Bakery, and Soft Drink Conference, and Chris Muhs, Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 324, regarding Bigfoot Beverages’s alleged “illegal lockout” of its workers, they said in part:

“Bigfoot Beverages is refusing to allow Teamsters to return to work after they concluded an unfair labor practice (ULP) strike.

Teamsters at Bigfoot Beverages have been exercising their rights on the picket line. This greedy, abusive company is violating the law. Employers cannot permanently replace workers who engage in an unfair labor practice strike.

Bigfoot’s executives have shown throughout this strike that they are cowards who are willing to sell out their workers and disrupt the lives of hardworking Oregon families.

The Teamsters Union is proud to serve as the exclusive collective bargaining representative for Bigfoot workers and we will continue to support our members during this lockout. We will be filing more charges to contest this shameful lockout, and we will never stop our fight for a fair contract.”

On April 28, Teamsters were back to picketing in front of Bigfoot Beverages headquarters in Eugene after taking a few days to regroup after the end of the strike. When they returned, an allegedly newly-established property line was spray painted in their usual picketing spot, along with no trespassing signs. 

According to a report logged by Oregon State Police, troopers responded to the business after hearing a complaint of trespassing. OSP said troopers advised Teamsters union members they were trespassing, and reminded them of the property boundaries. The Teamsters left the area without further incident.

Edwin Powell is a strike captain and was a driver for Bigfoot Beverages, he said they are working to see if the spray painted boundaries are legal, as they push picketers closer towards the busy McVay highway. 

“We’ve been out here for 220 days and we’ve been on this whole property. So as soon as we pack up and leave to show good faith that we’re trying to meet with the company and we’re trying to bargain, they come out and they establish this fake property line,” he said on April 29. “Kind of shameful that Bigfoot is willing to put us this close to the highway.”

Powell said union members were not surprised to see Bigfoot’s commitment to the replacement workers.

“They had to cut down on a lot of their workforce. So it wasn’t a shocker,” he said. “They don’t want the union. It’s not about our retirement or any of this or that. They just purely don’t want a union that doesn’t cost them any financial burden now.”

In the April 24 statement, Levis said Bigfoot viewed their replacement team members as those who “showed remarkable courage and resilience during the strike despite racial and homophobic harassment by union picketers and threats by union picketers to report law-abiding minority workers to immigration enforcement authorities.”

Powell strongly condemned the allegations. 

“That’s probably the biggest load of crap I’ve ever heard in my life. I mean, if you go and talk to some of our guys, nobody here is racist or homophobic. We have plenty of people on this line who Bigfoot is throwing out intentionally, who are Hispanic, Black, White, Asian, gay, straight. It doesn’t matter,” Powell said. “Bigfoot trying to push this narrative that we’re being anti-Semitic and all this is honestly beyond everything the most disrespectful stuff they could do to us. Throwing us out, taking our pension away is one thing, but attacking everybody’s character out here and what they stand for is beyond unacceptable.”

Bigfoot filed a lawsuit with Lane County Circuit Court as a result of the union’s “alleged unlawful behavior.”

One Teamster, a former sales representative for Bigfoot Beverages who wished to remain anonymous, said their retirement got pushed back 15 years as a result of Bigfoot opting for a 401k plan for employees instead of the pension. He said the atmosphere on the picket line has changed over the past few days.

He said that with Bigfoot’s commitment to the replacement workers, there is a lot of uncertainty on how or when or if he’ll get his job back.

Although the striking members receive weekly strike pay from the Teamsters union, members like him say it’s a noticeable pay cut compared to his old job in sales while working for Bigfoot Beverages.

It’s this reality that can be stressful for him and his family especially during an uncertain economy, he said. 

“We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing. We’re going to advocate for pushing the boycott on Bigfoot, stop buying their products, vote with your wallet. I mean, our community has been nothing but tremendously supportive of us by doing that. And we’ve definitely been brought up from Bigfoot that what we’re doing is affecting them,” Powell said.

When pressed about members of the community who criticize the union members, Powell said people need to dig deeper on the issues at hand.

“I spend some time in the comment threads. I see what they’re saying. And you can tell they’re not even clicking on the articles. You can tell they’re not even reading. You can tell a lot of them have never even worked a union job. They can’t even really explain to you what a pension is,” he said. “So what I got to say about that is you know you’re misinformed and maybe you should educate yourself on the matter before you speak.”

While they continue to advocate for their jobs back, Bigfoot Beverages is celebrating the hard work from current employees.

“Our team members have been and remain our greatest asset and competitive advantage,” said Bigfoot Beverages Co-Presidents Eric Forrest and Andy Moore. “We owe it to them to ensure that their workplace is safe, welcoming, and reflects the values that we work hard to model. As a locally owned company with deep ties to the communities it serves, we are proud that our workforce has taken steps to better reflect those communities.”

The April 24 statement said the company is providing employees with “industry leading wages and benefits, including the 15% to 20% wage increases and 9% 401k employer contribution which the unions refused to take to their members prior to striking. Today, team members working at Bigfoot Beverages make $3 to $5 more per hour than employees at its closest competitors.”

Aaron Arellano
Aaron Arellano joined KEZI 9 News as a news reporter in September of 2023. If you have a story idea for Aaron, you can email him at [email protected].

The union at the Oregon-based drinks distributor Bigfoot Beverages has ended its strike after more than 200 days. But the company is now saying the picketers have been replaced, and won’t get their jobs back.

The workers went on strike back in September, seeking a contract that retains their pension plans. After months of little movement between the parties, the union has now offered Bigfoot an “unconditional return to work.”

However, in a press release Thursday, Bigfoot said it’s choosing to keep the workers it hired as replacements instead. The union claims this is illegal, and has declared the situation a “lockout.”

According to the National Labor Relations Board, a company can decline to give a filled position back to a returning picketer if their strike was for economic reasons—like contract negotiations. In most cases, those workers can’t be discharged, and can request to be given open positions if they don’t find another job.

However, workers on strike over an Unfair Labor Practice charge have greater protections under federal regulations. According to the NLRB, employer has to offer them their position back, barring serious misconduct.

In an email to KLCC, Teamsters spokesperson Matthew McQuaid argued the strike at Bigfoot became an unfair labor-related action after the company stopped recognizing the union in December, which the workers said was illegal.

“The Teamsters Union is proud to serve as the exclusive collective bargaining representative for Bigfoot workers and we will continue to support our members during this lockout,” wrote Teamsters representatives Chris Muhs and Jeff Padellaro in a press release Thursday. “We will be filing more charges to contest this shameful lockout, and we will never stop our fight for a fair contract.”

In total, the Teamsters have ten open labor complaints against Bigfoot, and they’re awaiting review from the NLRB. Bigfoot has five open charges against the workers and their representation, as well as a lawsuit in Lane County Circuit Court.

In its press release on Thursday, Bigfoot accused picketing workers of racist and homophobic harassment against their replacements.

“Our team members have been and remain our greatest asset and competitive advantage,” wrote Bigfoot Co-Presidents Eric Forrest and Andy Moore. “We owe it to them to ensure that their workplace is safe, welcoming, and reflects the values that we work hard to model.”

The union didn’t immediately respond to those accusations.

[UPDATE: McQuaid responded to the allegations in an email to KLCC on Friday afternoon, writing that “Bigfoot will try everything to distract from their choice to illegally lock out their workers who were exercising their right to strike.”]

Nathan Wilk

Nathan Wilk joined the KLCC News Team in 2022. He is a graduate from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication. Born in Portland, Wilk began working in radio at a young age, serving as a DJ and public affairs host across Oregon.

See stories by Nathan Wilk

The Daily Emerald / Lucas Hellberg / April 3, 2025
Link to this article on the Daily Emerald Website [here]

More than 8,400 signatures have been collected to bring Eugene’s fire service fee up for a public vote, the Eugene Chamber of Commerce announced March 14. 

City officials estimate the fire service fee would generate $10 million in revenue annually. Under the ordinance, the city would move $8 million in general fund dollars out of the Eugene-Springfield Fire Department and replace it with $10 million in the new fire service fee revenue. 

The general fund currently accounts for roughly 67% of the more than $59 million Eugene allocates to the fire department each year. With the move of $8 million in general fund dollars away from the fire department, the city’s total annual general fund contribution to the department would be reduced by roughly 20%. 

On Feb. 10, the Eugene City Council voted five to three to implement the fire service fee without a public vote. City Councilors Jennifer Yeh, Eliza Kashinsky, Matt Keating, Alan Zelenka and Lyndsie Leech voted to implement the fee without a prior public vote. City Councilors Mike Clark, Greg Evans and Randy Groves voted against implementing the fee without a prior public vote.

The support for bringing the fee up for a public vote was reportedly bipartisan. According to the Chamber, early sampling of 6,000 signatures collected indicates that 46% were registered Democrats, 32% were registered unaffiliated, 20% were registered Republicans and 2% were other. 

Chamber of Commerce Leads Opposition

The Eugene Chamber of Commerce began publicly speaking against the fire fee at a City Council meeting in November 2024.

Chamber officials expressed a strong belief that critical city services, like public safety, parks and libraries, should be “prioritized and protected.” They said they are committed to working with city leaders “to identify long-term, fiscally responsible solutions to Eugene’s budget challenges.”

Chamber officials said they believe another approach is possible. Instead of raising taxes outright, they said the city should first identify budget priorities, make necessary cuts and then make the case for new funding to voters. 

“Our goal is not just to challenge a fee but to ensure a more sustainable, transparent and community-supported path forward,” Chamber President Brittany Quick-Warner said. 

Rationale for the Fire Service Fee 

Some city officials disagree with the Chamber. Eugene City Councilor Eliza Kashinsky, who voted for the fire service fee, spoke with The Daily Emerald in early March. At the time, she said she was “frustrated” with the Chamber’s effort to bring the fire service fee up for a public vote. 

Kashinsky said the Chamber’s efforts to bring the fee up for a public vote are delaying efforts to have more conversations about long-term city budget stability. 

At the same meeting that the City Council voted to implement the fire service fee, councilors also voted unanimously to direct the City Manager to prepare a council retreat on long-term budget stabilization strategies.  

Kashinsky also defended voting to implement the fire service fee. She said there “aren’t any other good” alternatives to the fire service fee that do not have “severe impacts” to city services.

Another City Councilor who voted for the fire service fee compared the fee to utility billing.

“Our Fire EMS is very similar to a utility. It’s something we count on to be there every day,” City Councilor Jennifer Yeh said at a City Council meeting in February. “It cannot stop working.”

EWEB Commissioner John Brown expressed a different perspective in February when he raised concerns about the potential shift of a City of Eugene general fund cost to residents’ EWEB bill. 

Speaking at an EWEB Board meeting in February, Brown cautioned that adding the fire service fee to residents’ EWEB bills could result in water and power utility shutdowns for customers unable to pay the additional charge. Brown also expressed a desire to keep EWEB bills dedicated exclusively to utility charges.

“I just want to keep utilities utilities and not start putting other charges on EWEB bills,” Brown said at the meeting.

At a meeting on April 1, EWEB Commissioners discussed billing and collection of the fire service fee. Commissioners asked EWEB staff questions. EWEB staff are currently working on getting answers to many of their questions. 

One commissioner asked about the timeline for EWEB to approve the fee. 

“Do we have to make a decision before it goes to a vote so that if it does pass, then they’re ready for a collection mechanism or is it something that if it passes that we have some time to make that decision?” EWEB Commissioner Mindy Schlossberg asked at the meeting. 

The EWEB Board of Commissioners has not yet decided if they will bill the fire service fee on behalf of the city. The board is scheduled to discuss billing and collection again on May 6. 

Fire Fee Budget Impact 

If the fire service fee is enacted, the city would shift $8 million in general fund dollars from the fire department to fill budget deficits in other city departments. City officials said that without the new fire service fee revenue, the city would need to “implement $11.5 million in budget reductions beginning in July 2025.”

City officials proposed two potential scenarios for those budget reductions. Both of those potential reductions include cuts to these city departments: police, fire, public works, planning and development, central services, and library, recreation, and cultural services. 

City officials justify the move of $8 million in general fund dollars out of the fire department’s budget by saying it will be replaced with $8 million in “dedicated” fire service fee revenue. They said the fee is “anticipated to be used to stabilize $8 (million) in existing fire and emergency medical services and provide $2 million in additional funding for expanded fire services.” They added the fee will “enable the city to increase and grow these services over time to meet community service needs.”

Eugene’s fire service fee rates

Table: Lucas Hellberg Source: City of EugeneGet the dataEmbed Created with Datawrapper

City Councilor Randy Groves was one of three councilors who voted against implementing the fire service fee without a public vote. While Groves said he doesn’t want to see the cuts that would result from not implementing the fee, he believes the choice should be up to the voters. 

“I don’t want to see these cuts either. Personally, if this was on a ballot, I would vote for it,” Groves said at a City Council meeting in February. “But, this is other people’s money. They should get a chance to weigh in themselves.”

Under an amendment passed by the City Council, the fire service fee also gives the City Manager the authority to increase the fire fee by up to 5% annually without a vote of the city council or Eugene voters.

In a Feb. 10 letter to city leaders, Chamber officials, business leaders and others raised concerns about the fire service fee. They said one of their primary concerns was that the public will incorrectly “assume that $10 million in new investment is being made into Eugene’s Fire Department.”

In highlighting that only $2 million of the $10 million fire fee will be used to expand fire services, Chamber officials said, “This risks eroding trust between the city and the community, as residents and businesses will not see the full impact of what they believe they are paying for.”

What’s next for the Fire Service Fee?

On March 24, the petition to bring the fire service fee up for a public vote was certified by Eugene City Recorder Katie LaSala. The certification follows Lane County Elections validating the signatures that were collected. 

Now, Eugene residents will potentially get to decide if they want to pay the fire service fee. Per the City of Eugene’s Referendum Process, the fire service fee referendum vote must take place in the next available election, which must take place at least 90 days after the certification of the petition. According to the City of Eugene’s Elections webpage, the next available election is Nov. 6, 2025. 

But it is possible that Eugene voters might not vote on the fee after all. If the Eugene City Council decides to repeal the fire service fee ordinance at least 61 days before the next available election date, voters will no longer vote on the fee. 

Another possibility is that the election could occur sooner or later. Eugene City Council could choose to place the referendum in an earlier or later special election, which must be held at least 66 days after the certification of the petition. Under Oregon law, the city would be required to pay for the cost of holding the special election. 

Lane County spokesperson Devon Ashbridge said the costs for special elections can vary. 

“The cost would depend upon whether there are other items on a ballot, how many and for which jurisdictions … We should be able to provide a very general estimate if an election date is announced by the City of Eugene,” Ashbridge said.

It is not clear yet what the City Council will do to address the successful petition. The City Council is on break until April 8. 

According to Eugene City Code, City Manager Sarah Medary must present a certified referendum or initiative petition to the City Council no later than 20 days after certification for consideration.

At that time or after which, the City Council may adopt the ordinance proposed by the petition or repeal the ordinance referred by the petition. The City Council could also cast a vote to recommend approval or rejection of the initiated or referred measure or order alternative measure(s) to appear on the same ballot. The council is restricted from adopting or repealing such ordinances during the 61-day period preceding an election on the measure.

• The City of Eugene is proposing a zone change for the northern portion of the Butterfly Lot downtown.
• The change would allow for mixed-use development, with housing as the top priority.

Eugene officials are considering a zone change that could pave the way for a new development, including some much-needed housing, on the “Butterfly Lot,” a high-profile piece of city-owned land that has long been in flux.

The city purchased the lot from Lane County in 2018 with plans to construct a new City Hall building, designing a town square where civic and community resources were centralized downtown. In 2019, the site of the former City Hall was purchased by Lane County to be used as a temporary surface parking lot for county employees, completing a downtown land swap between entities.

In 2021, part of the Butterfly Lot was redeveloped into the Lane County Farmers Market Pavilion at 85 E. 8th Ave. The northern portion of the Butterfly Lot is used as a surface lot while the southern portion houses the Lane County Farmers Market Pavilion. As plans for Eugene’s City Hall moved to acquire the former EWEB Headquarters building at 500 E. 4th Ave., the question for planners has become, ‘What to do with the north portion of the Butterfly Lot?’ 

The new “Major Commercial” zoning designation would allow for commercial development on the lot but also includes a provision allowing for housing. While the city plans to solicit development proposals, Development Analyst Dylan Huber-Heidorn, speaking on behalf of the city as the applicant for the zone change, said housing is a top priority for the city and will be required for the development of this lot. 

“I think we’ll certainly welcome some form of mixed-use development there but housing will certainly be an absolutely required element,” Huber-Heidorn said of the types of proposals the city will consider.

The official language of the proposal would change the property from a “Public Lands with a Transit Oriented Development Overlay” to a “Major Commercial zone with a Transit Oriented Development Overlay and Nodal Development Overlay.”

Associate Planner Nick Gioello explained the uses for both the Transit Oriented Development Overlay and the Nodal Development Overlay. He said the Transit Oriented Development Overlay promotes increased choices in transit modes, enhances pedestrian safety and encourages less automobile use in dense urban spaces. This can be done by setting limitations for building setbacks and orientation. 

He said Nodal Development Overlay utilizes prohibited uses and special use limitations to ensure that developments fit the area they are located in. 

“Its purpose is to direct and encourage development that’s supportive of the Nodal Development Overlay zone and protect these areas from incompatible development,” Gioello said. “Things like car washes, vehicle sales, stand-alone parking — these are things that would be allowed in the C-3 commercial area but within the overlay, those are now not allowed.”

According to Huber-Heidorn, the property’s history of public ownership and zoning as Public Land doesn’t allow for redevelopment opportunities rooted in the city’s goals of building housing and integrating developments with public spaces and the rest of downtown. 

“A zone change is necessary to enable other uses and future development potential,” Huber-Heidorn said.

No public comments on the proposed zone change were received. Hearings Official David Doughman called the zoning change request “pretty straightforward” and expects to have a final decision on the property issued by April 3. 

Hannarose McGuinness is The Register-Guard’s growth and development reporter. You can reach her at [email protected].

By Lauren Kaori Gurley and Julian Mark / Washington Post / March 7, 2025

[Link to story]

A federal judge on Thursday blocked President Donald Trump from firing a Democratic member of the National Labor Relations Board, calling the dismissal “flat wrong” in a ruling that could set up a Supreme Court showdown over the parameters of presidential power.

In a 36-page order, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of the District of Columbia said Trump’s dismissal in January of Gwynne Wilcox from the agency — which oversees relations among workers, labor unions and employers — violated the National Labor Relations Act.

“The President’s interpretation of the scope of his constitutional power — or, more aptly, his aspiration — is flat wrong,” wrote Howell, an Obama-era appointee, in an accompanying 36-page memo. “The President does not have the authority to terminate members of the National Labor Relations Board at will, and his attempt to fire plaintiff from her position on the Board was a blatant violation of the law.”

Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said in a statement Thursday responding to the ruling that “a radical liberal judge is attempting to reverse the results of the election by declaring that the democratically-elected President lacks authority to remove an officer wielding executive power the Constitution vests in the President alone.”

Wilcox called her firing “an unlawful attempt to remove me” that “has interfered with the Board’s ability to fulfill its congressional mandate under the National Labor Relations Act.”

“I’m ready to get back to work,” she said.

The ruling marks the third time in recent weeks that a federal judge has determined that Trump illegally dismissed a Senate-confirmed member of an independent agency, part of a wave of firings at multiple agencies.

On March 1, another federal judge in Washington blocked Trump’s removal of Hampton Dellinger as the head of the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistleblower complaints filed by government workers. On Wednesday, an appeals court said it would allow Trump to remove the agency watchdog, prompting him to drop his lawsuit Thursday.

Separately, on Tuesday, another judge blocked the firing of the chair of the federal Merit Systems Protection Board, which protects government workers from political discrimination.

As with Tuesday’s ruling, the Trump administration immediately appealed the Wilcox decision. Legal experts said the cases could be quickly taken up by the Supreme Court, whose conservative majority may be sensitive to the argument that the president should have broad jurisdiction over independent agencies.

All three dismissed officials contend that their terminations broke with long-standing precedent, which holds that the president cannot fire members of independent bodies without cause.

In Wilcox’s case, NLRB members are protected by the 1935 law establishing the five-seat board, which also states that the president can only dismiss members in cases of neglect of duty or malfeasance. Her firing marked the first time that a president has terminated an NLRB member.

In a March 5 district court hearing, Deepak Gupta, a prominent Supreme Court litigator representing Wilcox, said that her dismissal was an “effort to try to overturn” a 1935 Supreme Court decision that shields board members of independent federal agencies from removal by the president.

“The idea that I think my friends on the other side have is that the NLRB … has the kind of executive powers that a Cabinet department has,” Gupta said. “And that’s just not true.”

The cases highlight Trump’s efforts to expand presidential authority. Within weeks of taking office, he’d removed more than a dozen inspectors general and fired members of other independent agencies. In February, Trump also ordered a White House review of any draft regulations issued by independent agencies, which have typically operated outside the direct control of the president.

As in the firing of Wilcox, Trump asserted that the “Constitution vests all executive power in the President.”

The terminations also have left certain agencies without the capacity to conduct all of their work. Trump’s dismissals of two of three Democratic commissioners on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have left the five-seat body without enough members to vote on matters. Likewise, Wilcox’s termination left the five-member NLRB with two members, paralyzing the agency. Some basic operations, such as union elections, can continue. But without three members, the NLRB cannot decide on cases involving labor law violations.

Congress gave federal agencies — including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Reserve and the Federal Trade Commission — independence so that they could interpret the law free from presidential interference or preferences, according to legal experts.

“Firing Wilcox deprives workers of the sole agency that is available to enforce their legal right to unionize and collectively bargain,” said Benjamin Sachs, a professor of labor at Harvard Law School. “It has massive implications for working people across the entire country.”

Some employers, including CVS and Whole Foods, have seized on the opportunity to challenge NLRB decisions, including union victories. That has left some workers without a legal path to union contracts or relief in cases of illegal union-busting. (Whole Foods is owned by Amazon, whose founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

In moving to terminate Wilcox, whose five-year term was set to end in 2028, the government argued that the administration relied on a 2020 Supreme Court decision involving the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that gave the president firing authority over multimember agency boards except those without “substantial executive power.”

But Howell rejected that argument, writing that the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed a 1935 decision, Humphrey’s Executor v. United States, that holds the president cannot remove members of independent agencies without cause, writing that “presidential removal power has never been viewed as unrestricted.”

She added that Trump could still exercise control of the NLRB by appointing two members, as well as a general counsel, who could execute his agenda, but that “he simply has chosen not to do so.”

Howell highlighted the stakes of the case.

“The President seems intent on pushing the bounds of his office and exercising his power in a manner violative of clear statutory law to test how much the courts will accept the notion of a presidency that is supreme,” the judge wrote.

“The courts are now again forced to determine how much encroachment on the legislature our Constitution can bear and face a slippery slope toward endorsing a presidency that is untouchable by the law,” she added.

By Haley Chi-Sing / Fox News / Published March 7, 2025 11:49am EST

[Link to Story]

The Trump administration appealed a federal judge’s decision Thursday that the administration’s firing of a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) member was illegal – the same day that the former head of the Office of the Special Counsel announced he was dropping his suit against President Donald Trump on similar grounds. 

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered Thursday that NLRB member Gwynne Wilcox be reinstated after she had been fired by Trump earlier this year. Wilcox filed suit in D.C. federal court, arguing that her termination violates the congressional statute delineating NLRB appointments and removals. 

“A President who touts an image of himself as a ‘king’ or a ‘dictator,’ perhaps as his vision of effective leadership, fundamentally misapprehends the role under Article II of the U.S. Constitution,” Howell wrote in her Thursday opinion. 

The Trump administration filed its appeal to the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit shortly after the decision was issued. The administration wrote in its appeal that it intended to request a stay of the order pending appeal, “including an immediate administrative stay” from the appellate court. 

In her Thursday opinion, Howell had some harsh words for the president, writing that his “interpretation of the scope of his constitutional power – or, more aptly, his aspiration – is flat wrong.”

“At issue in this case is the President’s insistence that he has authority to fire whomever he wants within the Executive branch, overriding any congressionally mandated law in his way,” Howell wrote. 

Howell’s decision came on the same day that Hampton Dellinger, a Biden-appointee previously tapped to head the Office of Special Counsel, announced that he would be dropping his suit against the Trump administration over his own termination. 

“My fight to stay on the job was not for me, but rather for the ideal that OSC should be as Congress intended: an independent watchdog and a safe, trustworthy place for whistleblowers to report wrongdoing and be protected from retaliation,” Dellinger said in a statement released Thursday. 

Dellinger’s announcement was preceded by a D.C. appellate court’s Wednesday holding that sided with the Trump administration. 

The court issued an unsigned order pausing a lower court order that had reinstated Dellinger to his post. 

“Thank you to the countless DOJ lawyers working around the clock each and every day to defend the President’s actions and uphold the Constitution against baseless attacks,” a Department of Justice spokesperson told Fox News at the time. 

Dellinger said in his announcement that he believes the circuit judges “erred badly” in their Wednesday decision, saying that it “immediately erases the independence Congress provided for my position.”

“And given the circuit court’s adverse ruling, I think my odds of ultimately prevailing before the Supreme Court are long,” Dellinger said. “Meanwhile, the harm to the agency and those who rely on it caused by a Special Counsel who is not independent could be immediate, grievous, and, I fear, uncorrectable.”

Similar to Wilcox, Dellinger sued the Trump administration in D.C. federal court after his Feb. 7 firing. 

He maintained the argument that, by law, he can only be dismissed from his position for job performance problems, which were not cited in an email dismissing him from his post.

The Supreme Court had previously paused the Trump administration’s efforts to dismiss Dellinger. The administration had asked the high court to overturn a lower court’s temporary reinstatement of Dellinger. 

Fox News’ Jake Gibson, Bill Mears, Shannon Bream, and David Spunt contributed to this report. 

ESSN is reaching out to FMCS to request clarification on what services have or will be affected and to confirm if they are suspending any mediation services. We will provide updates as we get them. If any of our labor allies or network members have information regarding possible cuts at the FMCS please share them in the comments.

The FMCS is an independent federal agency focused on preventing and resolving labor disputes through mediation and other conflict resolution services. They deal with private sector unions. Most mediation for public sector unions in Oregon go through the Oregon Employment Relations Board (ERB) and there is currently no indication that those services will be affected.

• FMCS’s Role: The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) is an independent agency established in 1947 to assist in the peaceful resolution of labor disputes in industries affecting interstate commerce. 
  
• Mission: FMCS’s primary mission is to prevent and minimize labor-management disputes by providing mediation, conciliation, and other alternative dispute resolution services. 
  
• Services: FMCS offers its services to both the private and public sectors, including federal agencies, state, and local governments. 
  
• Structure: FMCS operates from its Washington, DC headquarters and has field offices located across the country. 
  

[Link to story]

DENVER (AP) — For decades, conservatives in Congress have talked about the need to cut government deeply, but they have always pulled back from mandating specific reductions, fearful of voter backlash.

Now, President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to make major cuts in government through the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, run by billionaire Elon Musk — an initiative led by an unelected businessman who’s unlikely to ever run for office and was appointed by a termed-out president who no longer needs to face voters again.

The dynamic of cutting government while also cutting out those who answer to voters has alarmed even some fiscal conservatives who have long pushed for Congress to reduce spending through the means laid out in the Constitution: a system of checks and balances that includes lawmakers elected across the country working with the president.

“Some members of the Trump administration got frustrated that Congress won’t cut spending and decided to go around them,” said Jessica Reidl of the conservative think tank The Manhattan Institute. Now, she said, “no one who has to face voters again is determining spending levels.”

That may be changing.

On Thursday, facing mounting court challenges to the legality of Musk ordering layoffs, Trump told his Cabinet that Musk could only make recommendations about government reductions. And there were more signs that Congress, after sitting on the sidelines for nearly the first two months of Trump’s administration, is slowly getting back into the game.

On Wednesday, Republican senators told Musk that he needed to ask Congress to approve specific cuts, which they can do on an up-or-down, filibuster-free vote through a process known as recission.

Senators said Musk had never heard of the process before. That was a striking admission given that it’s the only way for the executive branch to legally refuse to spend money that Congress has given it.

“To make it real, to make it go beyond the moment of the day, it needs to come back in the form of a rescission package,” said Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a longtime advocate of spending reductions who said he introduced the idea of recission to Musk during the lunch meeting of the GOP caucus.

Of course, letting Congress have the final word may be constitutional, but it would open up the process to individual representatives or senators balking at cuts because of home-state interests or other concerns, as some have already. But Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office and an economist in George W. Bush’s administration, said that “messy” process is a superior one.

“There’s always this instinct in people to insulate decisions from politics,” Holtz-Eakin said. “It’s a mistake in a democracy. It’s really messy. You’re not going to get the cleanliness of a corporate reorganization.”

Riedl noted she has advocated for deep cuts for decades, but there’s a reason Congress has balked.

“If Congress won’t pass certain spending cuts, it’s because the American people don’t want it enough,” she said. “If I want spending levels to be cut, it’s my job to persuade the people of America to agree with me.”

Trump and his supporters argue they did just that in the last presidential election when he promised to shake up Washington: “The people elected me to do the job and I’m doing it,” Trump said during his address to Congress last week.

A corporate-style approach to government has long been the goal of conservatives, especially one segment that has recently called for a more CEO-style leader who is less tied down by democratic commitments to voters. Musk has embodied that, bringing the same disruptive, cost-cutting zeal he brought to his private companies. Some of his DOGE moves mirrored steps he took to slash the social media site Twitter, including the email offering buyouts, both times called “Fork in the Road.”

Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, said the effort seems more destructive than just an attempt to shrink government in ways conservatives have long advocated.

“It is usurping the role of Congress on spending and program design, using cuts as a backdoor way to impound and close agencies created by Congress,” Moynihan said. “It is implementing an unprecedented scale of disruption.”

Grover Norquist, an anti-tax activist whose pledge to make government small enough to “drown it in a bathtub” has made him an icon for small-government conservatives, cheered the DOGE project. He said Congress has to authorize any real reductions, but hoped that DOGE’s cuts show the legislative branch that voters will not panic when government is shrunk.

“If we do something for three years, they’ll make it the law,” Norquist said of Congress. “They’ll see it’s safe, they’ll see it’s successful. They’ll come in and put their name on it.”

Norquist acknowledged that Congress has repeatedly balked at the level of cuts that he would like to see, even under unified Republican control. He asserted that “95%” of Republicans support such reductions but “that wasn’t enough to get it across the finish line” in an era where the majority party usually only has a razor-thin margin of control in either chamber.

The past nearly half-century of politics has been defined by conservatives pledging to cut government spending, only to see it continue to grow. Republican Ronald Reagan swept into the presidency in 1980 pledging to cut government, but when he left eight years later its size had increased. The trend continued through Trump’s first term and during Democrat Joe Biden’s presidency.

Now, however, Trump will not face voters again, despite occasional quips about seeking a constitutionally prohibited third term. He has been open about his grudge against the federal bureaucracy, which he blames for many of his troubles during his initial four years in office.

“I don’t think previous presidents have had the same animus towards the federal government this one has,” Holtz-Eakin said.

He noted that Trump has launched a second cost-cutting initiative through traditional channels — his own Office of Management and Budget, which asked agencies to prepare for mass layoffs. That, Holtz-Eakin said, makes those coming reductions likelier to stick than DOGE cuts.

Holtz-Eakin said there are initial signs of voter discontent over the pace, depth and chaos of the cuts. “The usual way you visit that on a president is you wipe out his party in the midterms,” Holtz-Eakin said. “You never evade the voters.”

As a reminder, do not park on Jerry’s property. There is plenty of alternative parking at the Springfield location, and we recommend carpooling to the Eugene location. We will be demonstrating (bannering) along Olympic and Highway 99, both of which are public property. Even though Dennis Orem and Jerry’s appear to want to side with Bigfoot Beverages in their illegal union-busting tactics, we hold them accountable.

Also, as most of you probably know, we are expecting rain tomorrow. Please dress accordingly and stay dry. — and remember Justice isn’t afraid of a little rain!

Picket Locations for Friday, January 31st at 4pm.

• 2525 Olympic St. Springfield
• 2600 OR-99, Eugene

Why are we holding an action at Jerry’s

Why are we holding an action at Jerry’s? Because Dennis Orem sits on the Board of Directors at Summit Bank alongside Andy Moore, a co-owner of Bigfoot Beverages—a company that has been engaging in illegal union-busting tactics for over 130 days as it tries to crush its workers’ union and seize their pension. Jerry’s also does business with Bigfoot. The only way to stop the wealthy and powerful from destroying unions and trampling on the rights and dignity of working men and women is to hold them accountable.

I don’t believe that simply being rich and successful makes someone a bad person. However, if you stand by and allow someone you do business with to break the law, abuse their workers, and spit in the face of the very community in which they operate, then you condone their behavior and are just as guilty as they are.

There are no neutrals here!

Picket Locations for Friday, January 31st at 4pm.

• 2525 Olympic St. Springfield
• 2600 OR-99, Eugene

Despite knowing about these practices, Jerry’s continues to sell Bigfoot products, effectively condoning their behavior. Let Dennis know that not taking a side means he is siding with union busters and scabs, and if he chooses to stand against workers and the community then we will stand against Jerry’s and against Dennis Orem. Don’t miss this important event to support fair treatment for workers!

Picket Locations for Friday, January 31st at 4pm.

• 2525 Olympic St. Springfield

• 2600 OR-99, Eugene

BOYCOTT BIGFOOT BEVERAGES

If you would like to join the Eugene Strike Support Committee or get more involved in supporting the striking workers, you can email us at [email protected].

Date: Sunday, October 20th
Time: 2:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Location: ColdFire Brewing, 263 Mill St, Eugene

Also ColdFire hosts an open mic from 4:30 to 8:00 so maybe we will see some of our local labor musicians there with their interments. for more info contact Lonnie at [email protected].

There is an open bargaining session for the UO Student Workers 2pm to 5pm tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct 16th at Room 125 Chiles Wing of the Lillis Business Complex, 955 E 13th Ave, Eugene. We encourage community members to show up to support these workers.

In a desperate letter sent by their union-busting lawyers, they accuse ESSN and our Network Allies of planning “unlawful activities.”

What they’re really afraid of is the truth: a Network-led delegation presented a letter to Umpqua Bank on Monday, October 7th, exposing Umpqua Board member Eric Forrest’s for the union busting scumbag he is and informing the board of his aggressive union-busting actions—hiring scab labor and threatening workers’ pensions. We demanded that Forrest be suspended from all Board activities until the following demands are met:

1. End all union-busting at Bigfoot Vending and immediately stop hiring scabs to replace workers.
2. Protect employees’ pensions and guarantee no worker will be forced into a 401(k) against their will.

You can view both our letter to Umpqua Bank and Bigfoot’s cowardly legal response on our homepage at solidaritynetwork.org.

Here’s the deal: we’re drafting our response, but the short version? Forrest and Moore can take a long walk off a short pier. ESSN and our Network Allies will relentlessly hold any local business accountable when they engage in racist, anti-worker, anti-union practices. We have every legal right to speak out against these types of abuses under the First Amendment, and with over 30 years of targeted, non-violent direct action under our belt, we know how to fight, we know how to win, and we will not back down. Corporate scumbags, scabs, and slimy union busting lawyers will not stop us from standing by workers and cracking down on exploitative bosses.

We’re holding a Network Rally at Umpqua Bank (6th and Olive St. in Eugene) this Wednesday, October 16th at 3:30 pm.

Let’s set the record straight for Bigfoot’s lawyers, since we know they like to creep on our website: this isn’t some “secondary boycott” or picket. This is a community rising up, using its First Amendment rights to hold Eric Forrest, Andy Moore, and anyone who dares support their racist, anti-worker behavior accountable. We’re done asking nicely. ESSN isn’t a union, we answer to no one—but we damn sure stand with unions. Eugene is a union town, and it’s time to crush Bigfoot Vending under the full weight of the people’s power. We’re not here to negotiate. We’re here to win.

Join us for a community Zoom meeting this Monday at 6pm to discuss our next steps. We’re just getting started.

^{Topic: Bigfoot Sucks Zoom
Time: Oct 14, 2024 06:00 PM
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6075416208?pwd=bm05eW9KUGYxNVV2UW5LOEVlNFFNQT09&omn=87391228253
Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833
Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425}

Teamsters 206 reached out and is asking for community members to stand on the line this Sunday, October 6th between 6pm and 12 midnight at both the McVay Picket and the Laura St. Picket. Any Network members or community allies able to turn out on short notice would be apricated.

Picket Locations

– 86776 McVay Hwy, Eugene
– 1860 Laura St, Springfield

Springfield City Club – Measure 118 Debate

Antonio Gisbert is the chief petitioner for Measure 118, the Oregon Rebate, a bold initiative that will put $1,600 a year directly into the hands of every Oregonian by forcing corporations like Comsat and Nike to pay their fair share through a hike in the corporate minimum tax for the largest corporations. He’ll be taking on corporate mouthpiece Preston Mann from the Oregon Business & Industry, the state’s biggest business lobby and shameless servants of the most corrupt, profit-hungry corporations.

Thursday: Noon – 1pm
Springfield Chamber of Commerce, 101 A St., Springfield
You can join this meeting on Zoom or watch later on You Tube.
Read Full Program Details Here

Eugene City Club – Measure 118 Debate

Antonio Gisbert is the chief petitioner for Measure 118, the Oregon Rebate, a bold initiative that will put $1,600 a year directly into the hands of every Oregonian by forcing corporations like Comsat and Nike to pay their fair share through a hike in the corporate minimum tax for the largest corporations. He’ll be taking on corporate mouthpiece Angela Wilhelms from the Oregon Business & Industry, the state’s biggest business lobby and shameless servants of the most corrupt, profit-hungry corporations.

Friday: Noon – 1:15pm
WOW Hall 291 W 8th, Eugene
Attend in person or Watch on YouTube

We will be having a network meeting to plan a series of non-violent direct actions targeting businesses with ties to Bigfoot Beverages, the first will be Umpqua Bank. Eric Forrest, the co-president of Bigfoot Beverages is a board member, and our goal will be fore Umpqua Bank to remove him from the board until such time as Bigfoot stops their union busting tactics, quits using scab labor, and agrees to a fair contract that protects workers’ pensions. We will also be discussing possible actions and options relating to the scab workers that Bigfoot has brough from out of state.

This will be a zoom meeting, 6:00 pm tomorrow evening, and you can join at the link below.

Topic: Bigfoot Community Actions Meeting
Time: Sep 25, 2024 06:00 PM
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6075416208?pwd=bm05eW9KUGYxNVV2UW5LOEVlNFFNQT09&omn=85419133133
Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833
Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425

Hello Network members, allies, and friends. We are asking you to exercise your First Amendment right to protest by participating in a community support action for striking workers at Bigfoot Beverages and spam the company with protest applications for scab work at the company!

The Network is also asking the community to spam Bigfoots social media accounts with pro-worker messages and to call them with pro-worker calls to the numbers below.

Please remember that ESSN does not engage in or condone violence or threats of violence. All messages should be in support of workers and encourage the company to meet the very reasonable and fair demands of these workers!

Links and numbers

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BigfootBeverages/
TicToc: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bigfoot-beverages/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigfootbeverages/
X: https://x.com/bigfootbev?lang=en

Bigfoot Beverages Phone Numbers:
Main number: 541-687-0251

After Hours Numbers: Call these numbers after hours they are for their customers, so they have to answer them or risk missing a call from their customers.
Bend 541-382-4495
Coos Bay: 541-266-1190
Eugene: 541-687-0251
Newport: 541-283-1017
Roseburg: 541-236-1017

“Hello, I’m a concerned community member and I want Bigfoot Beverages to bargain their union contract in good faith, not hire or allow scab labor, and to meet the reasonable demands of your workers for a fair contract and to leave their pensions alone.”

Again, the network encourages community members to be respectful but firm when interacting with the company and demanding they do not use scab labor and meet the reasonable demands of these workers.

Submit a Protest Application: You can view positions and apply at the following links: the goal is to inundate them with protest applications and show them that our community doesn’t tolerate scab labor.

Bigfoot Beverages Website – Bigfoot Beverages

Ziprecruiter.com – Night-Loader-Eugene-Oregon-Bigfoot-Beverages
Salary.com – Night-Loader-Eugene-Oregon-Bigfoot-Beverages
talentify.io –Night-Loader-Eugene-Oregon-Bigfoot-Beverages
jobcase.com – Night-Loader-Eugene-Oregon-Bigfoot-Beverages
Indeed.com – Transport Driver – Eugene, OR 97405 – Indeed.com
trabajo.org – Delivery Driver job in Eugene – Bigfoot Beverages
talentify.io – Delivery Driver job in Eugene – Bigfoot Beverages
linkedin.com – Bigfoot Beverages hiring Delivery Driver in Eugene, OR
ziprecruiter.com – Delivery Driver Job in Eugene, OR at Bigfoot Beverages
Indeed.com – Service Technician – Springfield, OR 97477 – Indeed.com
Indeed.com – Sales Representative – Eugene, OR 97405 – Indeed.com

You can also fill out the survey by going to the link below, or using the QR code at the bottome of this alert.
oregonrn.org/phpatientsurvey

From ONA – ATTENTION PEACEHEALTH PATIENTS, TAKE OUR SURVEY!

We want to hear from you! Over the last few
years, you have told us how difficult it has been to
get care in a timely fashion. As your providers
(doctors, nurse practitioners, physician associates)
and nurses we share the frustrations! PeaceHealth
has continued to add to our caseloads making it
difficult to keep up.

Please take a few minutes to answer a brief survey
about your experiences. Feel free to share the link
with others who have been patients at
PeaceHealth facilities

Where: YMCA, 600 E 24th Ave, Eugene
Date: Sunday, Sep. 22
Time: 12:00 pm

For too long, postal workers have been stretched thin, making miracles happen in understaffed facilities. This has taken a toll on our health, our safety, and our ability to provide the service the public deserves. The Postal Service needs to listen to and heed the overwhelming voices of postal workers on the job and at the bargaining table, as well as the needs of the American people.

On October 1st, we will stand together and make our voices heard from coast to coast to demand that postal management listens to our voices. At stake is not just our jobs, but the fate of the People’s Post Office.

Date:
Tuesday, October 1st
Time:
1:00 pm
Location:
3148 Gateway Street, Springfield.

Demands:

1. Give Postal Workers and the Public a Voice: Last year, the Postal Board of Governors limited public comment periods in their hearings to just once a year. This isn’t acceptable. We’re demanding that the Board of Governors bring back the public comment period at every quarterly meeting, ensuring that postal workers and the public have a say in how the Postal Service is run.
   
2. Better Staffing and Better Service: The public deserves top-quality postal services, and that starts with investing in postal workers. We need management to commit to recruiting and retaining a dedicated workforce to ensure that every community gets the quality mail service they rely on.
   
3. Listen to Postal Workers at the Bargaining Table: Should management continue to stonewall us, we will not It’s time for them to recognize the value of our work and agree to a contract that meets our demands. We’re ready to take our fight from the bargaining table to the streets if necessary.

Download the Event Flyer Here Oct 1 Flyer – vertical (d1ocufyfjsc14h.cloudfront.net)
Download Talking Points Here oct_1_talking_points_updated.pdf (d1ocufyfjsc14h.cloudfront.net)

The primary issue in bargaining so far has been the Teamsters’ retirement benefits. Bigfoot, which is one of the largest soft drink and alcohol distributors in the Pacific Northwest, is trying to force workers to move from a defined-benefit pension plan to a riskier, more costly 401(k) plan. The company has also retained Fisher Phillips, one of the most notorious union-busting law firms in the country during labor negotiations.

The strike locations are

86776 McVay Hwy. Near Lane Community College and a second picket site on Shelbey St. in Springfield near the teamster’s hall. Pickets will be run 24/7 and we are asking network members and allies to drop by the picket line when you can to support these workers. We also heard they could also use coffee and water. Teamsters are asking people to not bring their own signs as this could cause legal problems with their bargaining. Teamster approved signage will be available.

We have just found out that Teamster Workers at Bigfoot Beverages are likely to go out on strike starting this Thursday. We are asking all network members and allies to stand in solidarity with these workers.

ESSN is holding an Emergency Strike Support meeting and are asking all network members to join a below zoom meeting at 8pm tonight to discuss what support we can offer if this strike happens and how the community will respond.

Topic: Teamsters Strike Support Meeting
Time: Sep 17, 2024 08:00 PM
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6075416208?pwd=bm05eW9KUGYxNVV2UW5LOEVlNFFNQT09&omn=84222786091
Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425
Dial by your location
• +1 (669) 900-6833
Meeting ID: 607 541 6208
Passcode: 232425

Union Drink Night

Our first drink night was a lot of fun, we hope to see more of your union brothers and sisters at the next one. This is a great opportunity to build solidarity and get to know our brothers and sisters in different union locals. It’s just a fun time, but sorry, you do have to pay for your own drinks and food.

When: 6:00 pm the First Wednesday of every month (October 2nd)
Where: Oakshire public house, 207 Madison St, Eugene.

Call out to Union Motorcycle Riders

The Network is looking for union members who like to ride “motorcycles” and are interested in starting a Union Thugs MC in Lane County. The MC would support our union locals by showing up in solidarity for pickets and actions, educate the community on the importance of unions, build solidarity and brotherhood/sisterhood among the different unions, and just have fun riding. If you interested, you could email Lonnie at [email protected] or drop by our Labor Drink Night, 6 pm, the first Wednesday of the month at the Oakshire public house, 207 Madison St, Eugene.

Bargaining Updates:

UO Student Workers

Last bargaining session held on 8/12/24 (Open)

I have been in attendance as a Network observer for most of the UOSW bargaining sessions with the University of Oregon and it doesn’t appear to me that the University is bargaining in good faith.

Managment seems to be refusing to engage, they have made very few proposals and ask few questions when the union brings their proposals to the table. They have refused to bargain over several of the unions proposals claiming they are “cost prohibitive” but have failed to provide their estimated costing for these proposals or for the few proposals they as management have brought forward. This is information that that they are required to provide, and I am doubtful that they even did a costing and are more likely doing what every bad boss dose which is to claim they don’t have the money even though they do.

It is obvious to this observer that the University is not taking this bargaining or these workers seriously. management said that they “get the feeling” that UOSW wants to change “how the University views student workers” and were adamant “that they were not interested in changing how they view student employment.” Yet it is apparent that management doesn’t sees UOSW not as workers but as children, underserving of fair wages, workers’ rights and protections, or respect.

Yet that is the whole reason that these workers organized and formed a union and weather the university likes it or not BOLI recognized these workers and their union. If the university keeps up their shenanigans It will not surprise me if these workers end up striking and I don’t think the university has realized yet that with 2,000+ student workers, they could easily shut it down! I would encourage our network members to attend these sessions in support of these workers as they bargain this historic first contract, and I’m betting things are going to get interesting as hell.

Next Braining Session:
Wed, Sept. 25, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm,
Room 125 Chiles Wing of the Lillis Business Complex, 955 E 13th Ave, Eugene

United Academics

I attended the most recent bargaining session and the attitude of management toward the faculty union and the way they interact with them is a shocking contrast to how management treats UOSW. They don’t show the same blatant disrespect they show UOSW but they still seem to insist on dragging things out, low balling the financials, insisting “they have no money”, and they could be feigning incompetence, but I’m not sure they aren’t just really incompetent.

I will say that it is fun to watch the Union’s team dismantle the management team. The big take away for me as an outside observer is that they University seems to not want to pay their faculty a fair wage and again wants to cry that they just don’t have the money, so need to nickel and dime the small number of faculty. Yet I’m sure that those in management are making bank.

Next Bargaining Session:
Thurs, Sept. 26, 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm,
Room 125 Chiles Wing of the Lillis Business Complex, 955 E 13th Ave, Eugene

Eugene Education Association

So, our teachers at 4J are back in bargaining, they had good turnout at their last bargaining session, but they could use more support from the community, if you can make the Bargaining session on the 1st that would be awesome, lets pack the auditorium and show management that we support our teachers and our students.

Next Bargaining Session:
Tue, Oct. 1, 4:30 pm
4J Education Center, 200 N Monroe St. Eugene

Tue, Oct. 10, 4:30 pm
4J Education Center, 200 N Monroe St. Eugene

Teamsters 206

ESSN recently turned out in support of Teamsters at Bigfoot Beverage for a Practice picket. These workers overwhelmingly to authorize a strike at Bigfoot Beverage, one of the largest soft drink and alcohol distributors in the Pacific Northwest. Bigfoot is trying to force workers to move from a defined benefit pension plan to a 401(k). The company has also haired one of the most notorious union-busting law firms in the country during negotiations with the union. Keep an eye out and we will send an Alert when we get word from 206 of their next action.

Measure 118: A Socialist and a Capitalist Walk into a Bar…

A few years ago, my buddy Antonio and I met up for some beers and burgers at a local bar. Antonio, a left-leaning liberal, threw out an idea: tax the biggest corporations, like Comcast and Nike, and use that money to give every Oregonian a rebate. Back then, we estimated each person would get around $750 a year, but now, six years later, that number is closer to $1,600.

Now, I’m a working-class republican and a fair-market capitalist, and I thought, “Hell yeah!” Tax these massive corporations that have been getting corporate welfare for years and put that money back into the hands of everyday Oregonians, who can spend it at local small businesses.

It took us six years to finally get Measure 118 on the ballot, and now we’re hearing all kinds of noise from the biggest corporations—the same ones that pay little to no taxes and get billion-dollar bailouts when they’re in trouble. Not to mention the bipartisan squawking from both Democrats and Republicans, who are suddenly arm-in-arm when it comes to denying working-class people the opportunity to get back a little of what the corporations and the politicians have spent years stealing from us.

Here’s the thing: when corporations and the political elites—Democrat and Republican alike—all agree on something, you can bet it’s because they want to screw over the working class. The best endorsement is that all three are against it.

So they will spend millions to spread their lies about Measure 118, like calling it a “sales tax,” when in reality, most businesses in Oregon won’t even be affected. It’s only targeting the mega-corporations, and only on their income over $25 million.

They’re also fear-mongering, saying businesses will leave the state. More lies. Plenty of states will still have higher corporate taxes than Oregon. I looked it up: Minnesota, with the highest rate at 9.8%, still has Walmart and Applebee’s. Measure 118 only bumps up Oregon’s corporate tax by 3%, so if those same corporations are fine with paying a higher tax in Minnesota why would they leave Oregon when we will still have a lower tax.

You want to know the real reason these corporations and politicians are fighting so hard against Measure 118? It’s because it helps the working class. And they’re terrified that once it passes, people will see the benefits, and other states will follow Oregon. And I hope they do! It’s about time we prioritize Main Street over Wall Street, and workers over billion-dollar corporations. It’s time to end the corporate welfare state and reclaim some of the money politicians and big business have been stealing from the working class.

One other thing the politicians and corporations want voters to believe is that Measure 118 is some sneaky scheme from some mysterious, out-of-state billionaire. But the truth is this was just a couple of regular guys in a bar with a good idea and the stones and the gumption to get the Rebate on the ballot. If you really want to know who the out of stat agitators are look at the tens of millions the Corporations are dumping on to Oregon to stop 118. But that’s what they do when the working class tries to reclaim even a small fraction of what’s been stolen from us. Screw those guys!

Just ask yourself can you use an extra $1600 a year, if you have a family of 4 can you use an extra $6,400 a year. If so, vote yes on Measure 118, and if someone tells you to vote against Measure 118, know this: they support corporations steeling from workers and corporate welfare, they support corrupt politicians who are willing to sell out workers, and they don’t support the working-class folk who keep Oregon running. VOTE YES ON 118!

Lonnie Douglas
Board member ESSN Jobs with Justice.

UO Student Workers (UOSW)
Next Bargaining Session
Date: 08/12/24
Time: 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Location: Room 125 Chiles Wing of the Lillis Business Complex, 955 E 13th Ave, Eugene
Join via Zoom: https://uoregon.zoom.us/j/97942807232

Notes: Last bargaining session was 7/25/24, A network observe was present along with observers from GTFF, United Academics, and ONA. Teamsters and ONA were also observing via zoom. Bargaining is open for the public to observe in person or via zoom link. If you can’t make it in person please log on to show your support via zoom.

We encourage our member organizations especially our union members to log on to the zoom and use your union logo and/or colors.

Oregon School Employee Association (OSEA)
OSEA Chapter 1 had a bargaining session this Wednesday, August 7th and as a network observer I was unimpressed with managements shady tactics. OSEA is fighting for the safety of both students and workers and asking that 4J simply follow the new laws as outlined in SB 758. We don’t have a next bargaining date yet but we hope when we do our network allies and members will turn out in support.

The Network is currently assisting with multiple organizing campaigns, and we are looking for motivated volunteers willing to SALT several workplaces. Volunteers can engage with our organizing team by sending an email to [email protected].

The Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA) Chapter 1 has been in a special bargaining session with 4J School District to try and get the district to follow new laws that were passed to protect students and workers, but the management team headed up by a Portland based Lawyer seem less concerned with protecting children and more interested in keeping staff from talking with parents.

I have been attending these open bargaining sessions as a community observer and member of the Solidarity Network and have not only been unimpressed with managements bargaining team and tactics. I have become even more concerned as I hear issues and concerns that OSEA members have been bringing both during the bargaining sessions and outside of the sessions.

The concerns that have been shared relate to the most vulnerable students in our community, children with developmental disabilities, significant medical needs, and significant behavioral needs and how chronic short staffing, and policies and practices by 4J leadership that restrict workers from engaging with parents to share when a child is struggling or has a special need.

OSEA believes that most parents want to know if their child is struggling or if they had a bad day, yet managements seem to focus more on keeping staff from engaging with parents in an honest and transparent manner than providing supports for students with significant behavioral and medical needs, going so far as to order staff to only positive incidents that happen.

OSEA lobbied hard to get SB 756 passed which requires that classified staff who work with students with special needs such as children with developmental disablists, significant medical needs, and significant behavioral needs are included in planning meetings and have access to the child’s educational support plan.

to be to keep the district from being sued and the way they seem most inclined to do this is not by allowing the staff that work with children to engage with the parents but to try and restrict contact and telling staff to

When asked Lisa Jenkins-Easton, the president of OSEA Chapter 1 why this was an important fight for OSEA, she said “The labor movement got our kids out of the factories and into schools now the labor movement needs to make sure our schools are safe!” We do this by partnering with parents and our community.

We do not have a date set for the next bargaining session, but it is important for the community to support the work that OSEA is doing in support of students. The network will send out an Alert as soon as OSEA and management settle on the next bargaining date.

In the meantime you can watch the update that OSEA President gave to us on Youtube https://youtu.be/Pi7VUf0PGM4

OSEA Eugene Chapter 1 needs your support

In order for students with developmental and behavioral needs to be successful in school, classified staff must be included in the development of their education plans.

The issue:

• Classified educators need access to IEPs and the ability to communicate with parents.
• Classified educators often have vital information about their students’ progress and should be participating in education plan meetings.
• Classified educators need adequate training when assigned to work with special needs students.
• In 2023 the Legislature granted classified educators these rights.
• This past school year, 4j was not following the law. Many classified educators who work with special needs students could not access plans, attend meetings, and were told they should not speak in good faith with students’ parents – all violations of the law.

There is a simple solution!

Follow the Law! Invite all staff who work directly wih students to attend meetings related to their educational, behavioral, and/or medical support plans and protocols. Provide staff adequate time to review those plans.

How can you help?

1. Sign up to attend the next OSEA Bargaining session by clicking on the link below.
   https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4RaDQSKXJUwvZFhPkwwA8s4FcJUSBfU6X5SCYingDCQY2DQ/viewform

Next OSEA Bargaining Sessions:

Date: Thursday, August, 1st
Time: 2:00 pm
Location: 4J Education Center, 200 N Monroe St. Eugene

Date: Wednesday, August 7th
Time: 10:00 am
Location: 4J Education Center, 200 N Monroe St. Eugene

2. Please Email your school board at [email protected] and share why this matters to you.

On August 1st ESSN will be providing food in support of both these workers and students. Please come and show your solidarity as OSEA fights not just for the safety of their members but the children and families that they serve.

ESSN has been following this campaign and has had observers at the last several bargaining sessions. We find it concerning that the 4J leadership seems so reluctant to follow the law and protect both their workers and our most vulnerable students. Most concerning are the instances that have been shared with our network of management telling workers not to speak with parents about issues or problems that their children are having.

Oregon School Workers Association (OSEA) continues to fight for the rights and safety of students.

Oregon School Workers Association (OSEA) is still in bargaining with the 4J School District to address the districts failure to comply with SB 756 which mandates that school districts include Educational Assistants (EA’s) and other staff members who work closely with special needs students in the students’ planning teams, alongside the students’ parents. This is essential as many of these students have behaviors related to their physical or developmental disabilities that put the students and workers at risk if EA’s are not involved in these care planning meetings.

The next bargaining session will be held on July 11th, at the Education Center, 200 N Monroe St. Eugene. We are asking community members and network members and allies to attend the session to observe and support OSEA and the families of our most vulnerable students as they fight to keep students and workers safe.

OSEA Bargaining Session for Student Safety
Date: Thursday, July 11th
Time: 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
Location: 4J Education Center, 200 N Monroe St. Eugene

Support our student workers

UO Student Workers continue to fight for their first contract. With many students gone for the summer it is important that the community turn out in support for these workers and show the University of Oregon that Eugene is a union town, and we expect management to barging in good faith and provide a fair first contract for these workers.

Upcoming Bargaining Sessions

Date: Thursday, July 25th
Time: 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Location: Room 125 Chiles Wing of the Lillis Business Complex, 955 E 13th Ave, Eugene

Date: Monday August 12th
Time: 11:00 am to 5:00 pm
Location: Room 125 Chiles Wing of the Lillis Business Complex, 955 E 13th Ave, Eugene

The Oregon Rebate

The Oregon Rebate has turned in just over 170,000 signatures, this is 53,000 more than the required amount to make it on to the November Ballot. The Secretary of State will begin certifying signatures on July 7th.

The Oregon Rebate is a true Peoples Initiative thought up when two local organizers were having beers and burgers at a local burger joint in downtown Eugene. For those who don’t know, the rebate will provide an annual rebate of $750 every year to every Oregonian. This will decrease child poverty in Oregon by 26%.

The Oregon rebate is a significant pay raise for working class Oregonians. Every person will get an extra $750 a year, for a worker making $15 an hour working 40 hours a week this is the equivalent of a 2.5% pay raise. That same worker with a family of 4 will get an extra $3,000 a year for their family, the equivalent of a 9.6% pay raise.

We have gotten the Oregon Rebate on the Ballot now we need to get the word out and get it passed. If you are interested in working on getting the word out or want more information you can reach out to the campaign at [email protected]

OSEA is supposed to provide the list 24 hours in advance, so people will need to fill out the request form by 3pm today. 

UOSW Bargaining Team

So, I went to the 2nd bargaining session for the UO Student Workers (UOSW) and again the UOSW did an outstanding job, they were professional, and their presentation were articulate and well organized. In contrast, managements bargaining team showed up late, refused to engage with the workers, and did not present anything. It is pretty obvious that this is not just a blatant display of disrespect toward these workers and an intimidation tactic that is failing miserably. It is also a delaying tactic.

It seems obvious to this observer that they are biding their time until the school year ends in a couple of weeks and students leave, likely hoping that the next bargaining session in August will have little or no observers and they can then pull any shenanigans they want without the workers, fellow students, and the community there to observe.

Well, they are in for a big surprise because, Eugene is a union town and even if many students have to return home for the summer, we know that the community will be there to observe and support these workers. So, we need our members, allies, and friends to turn out for the next bargaining session in August. We do not have the date and time yet, but we will send out an alert and post it on ESSN’s Facebook when we do.

Good Day to our Network members, allies, and firends.

This is the first of our monthly newsletters that we will be sending out moving forward. Many of you may be aware that ESSN is working on rebuilding our network after coming out of the pandemic and I am happy to say we are seeing quite a bit of reengagement. Moving forward we will be working to provide more updates from our union locals and our allies in the community. We will be having our annual meeting on the 29th of June and hope to many of you there.

Lonnie Doulgas
Organizer / Board member
ESSN Jobs with Justice.

OSEA is fighting for our most vulnerable students as the 4J School District violates Oregon Law by failing to allow parents and staff to participate in the support process for students with developmental disabilities, serious medical conditions, and behavioral challenges.

Learn More

OSEA Informational Picket & Rally in Support of 4J Students

Date: Wednesday, June 5th
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: 4J Education Center, 220 N Monroe St, in Eugene.

Following a hard-fought organizing campaign, UO Student Workers enter their first bargaining session for their first contract and are met with indifference and disrespect from managements bargaining team. Yet UOSW show they will not be deterred or intimidated by managements unprofessional behavior.

Learn More

UOSW 2nd Bargaining Session

Date: Wednesday, June 5th
Time: 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm
Location: Room 125, Chiles Wing of the Lillis Business Complex, 955 E 13th Ave, Eugene

Updates

Just Cause Initiative – ESSN has endorsed and is in support of the movement to pass a Just Cause ballot initiative in Oregon, which will keep employers from being able to fire workers without cause. We are currently looking at the viably of a local versus a statewide initiative.

Oregon Rebate – We are nearing the deadline for collecting signatures for The Oregon Rebate which is ballot initiative for the 2024 election that will rebate about $750 to every Oregonian (including children and all other Oregonians) every year; after increasing the minimum tax rate for the biggest corporations doing business in Oregon. We are very near our signature goal and are excited to see this people’s initiative on the 2024 Ballot. for more information visit the campaigns website

Oregon Rebate

ESSN Faith Labor Alliance

The faith community has a long history of supporting workers and unions and our local faith leaders have always been supportive of our local unions when called upon. Starting in July ESSN will host a Faith Labor Coffee the last Saturday of every month. This will be an opportunity to bring together our faith community and our labor community in solidarity to support and protect the rights of all workers. If you are interested in helping to organize or patriate in this project, please send an email to Lonnie at [email protected].

Following a hard-fought organizing campaign, UOSW-UAW and community members rallied outside Johnson Hall at 12 PM on Wednesday, May 29th, to energize their members and gather community support before marching to the EMU for their first bargaining session.

The atmosphere was electric, filled with enthusiastic solidarity. Drumming and chants of “Union Power, Worker Power” and “Hey UO, you can’t hide, we can see your greedy side” echoed through the crowd. It was inspiring to witness young workers, new to the labor movement, motivated and empowered as they exercised their collective union power.

As the group marched to the Erb Memorial Union (EMU) for their inaugural bargaining session, uncertainty loomed about whether the University’s Bargaining Team would agree to an open session, a practice adopted by other unions at the university.

While union members and allies waited to enter the hall to observe UOSW’s first bargaining session, management initially proposed an open bargaining session with the caveat that they could close it at any time. This was unacceptable to UOSW members. Eventually, management conceded, agreeing that the session could only be closed if both sides agreed. Thus, the workers secured a victory before the bargaining session even began.

However, management then kept everyone waiting for over half an hour before finally arriving. This delay could have been due to disorganization and unprofessionalism, but it seemed more likely to be an attempt to thin out the observers. If that was the intention, it did not succeed.

The bargaining session was unusual. While UOSW presented their proposals on wages, healthcare, scheduling, housing assistance, and more, management remained silent, refusing to engage with the UOSW bargaining team. This may have been an attempt to intimidate the less experienced bargaining team, but if so, it failed miserably. Instead, management’s silence came across as hostile, disrespectful, and unprofessional. Despite this, UOSW’s bargaining team were unfazed and their presentations were well-prepared and impressive for a first bargaining session.

It will be interesting to see how the second bargaining session unfolds this coming week.

We encourage all ESSN members and allies to support the UOSW bargaining at 1:30 pm on Wednesday, June 5th, in room 125 of the Chiles Wing of the Lillis Business Complex,  955 E 13th Ave. Eugene. It is crucial for the community to stand in solidarity with our student workers, especially if the disrespect shown by the University’s Bargaining Team at the first session is an indication of their future approach.

The Oregon School Employees Association (OSEA) represents around 1,100 classified workers in the 4J school district, including educational assistants, bus drivers, and bus assistants who work with students in the district’s special education program. These professionals frequently interact with, and provide support for students who have developmental disabilities, severe medical conditions, and behavioral challenges.

In 2023, OSEA drafted legislation aimed at enhancing services for these vulnerable students. Senate Bills 756 mandate that school districts include Educational Assistants and other staff members who work closely with special needs students in the students’ planning teams, alongside the students’ parents. This legislation was passed and was supposed to be implemented by April 2023. While many districts with fewer resources have successfully integrated these changes into their special education programs, the 4J school district has not.

OSEA has entered interim bargaining to push the school district to implement the legally mandated supports for our most vulnerable students. In response, 4J management has sent out emails barring Educational Assistants from participating in planning meetings and instructing staff not to discuss anything with parents except positive anecdotes about the student’s day. This means that if staff believe there is a problem or need, concerning a child, they are not allowed to share this with the parents. This also means staff are prohibited from informing a student’s parents that the support staff could be included to participate in the planning team meetings to support their child.

Not only has the 4J school district’s management failed to implement these changes as required by law, but by not allowing staff to inform parents of the supports that are available to their children management is actively obstructed the involvement of parents in their child’s education and putting both the child and staff at risk.

These actions are clear violations of the law. OSEA has sent a legal notice to 4J Legal demanding compliance with the new laws and will be informing the 4J school board of managements failure to comply with state law and request that they work with OSEA and parents to ensure that students are getting the supports they need. 

The Eugene Springfield Solidarity Network (ESSN) has submitted a public records request for the emails and the legal notice from OSEA and will continue to monitor this issue and urge our members and allies to join the OSEA rally in support of our most vulnerable students and their families at 6pm this Wednesday, June 5th at the 4J Education Center, 220 N Monroe St, in Eugene.

CAHOOTS & HOOTS UNION

THEY NEED YOUR SUPPORT to show White Bird Clinic leadership that CAHOOTS and HOOTS are vital to the Eugene and Springfield area.

CAHOOTS and Hoots are fighting for a fair first contract. They unionized 18 months ago and have been bargaining for over a year.

THESE WORKERS DESERVE RESPECT!

THESE WORKERS DESERVE A LIVING WAGE!

Stand in solidarity with CAHOOTS and HOOTS. Help keep them in service and keep their crisis workers and medics on the road and in our schools.

DEMANDS

• A Living wage.
• Fully staffed teams.
• Affordable dependent health insurance.
• Retain worker and program autonomy
• No *mandatory* shift coverage.
• Retirement support.

Receive updates here: CAHOOTS & HOOTS Union Workers | Instagram | Linktree

SEIU Sub-local 085 represents approximately 1,500 classified staff at the University of Oregon. They are currently in a difficult bargaining and if current mediation doesn’t go well we may see picket lines going up on April 1st.

Join U of O workers as they Rally for Respect
When: 12 pm to 1 pm, Monday, February 26th
Where: U of O EMU Amphitheater, 1395 University St, Eugene

After tow weeks of walking the picket line the Sacred Heart Home Care Nurses are closing out their strike with a candlelight vigil on Friday. Please Joint them as they reflect on the impacts of PeaceHealth’s choices on our community and patients. Mediation is scheduled to resume March 6th. As nurses and health care professionals of Lane County, this is an opportunity to establish camaraderie and mutual support, and we would love to have you Their!

Candlelight Vigil
When: Friday, Feb, 23rd at 6:00 pm
Location: Corner of MLK Blvd and Game Farm Road
Parking Options:
– Game Farm Road (south of MLK)
– St. Joseph Place
– Strike Headquarters (1075 International Way) for a shuttle ride

Please do not bring picket signs to the vigil.

A recent polls show 86% Americans approve of labor unions. Public support for labor unions has been generally rising since hitting its lowest point of 48% in 2009, during the Great Recession. Yet, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics union membership is less than 10% nation wide and only 8.9% of Oregon worker are members of a union.

We have to aske our selves if 86% of American workers want a union why are less that 10% of American workers unionized? The answer is poor leadership and a lack of solidarity among union leadership and workers in general.

We have union leaders that prefer to rub elbows with politicians while looking down their noses at their working class members. This leads to union members feeling frustrated and ignored which weakens the union and the labor movement as a whole. Organizing to get politicians elected instead of organizing workers in our community to unionize is one of the biggest reasons we have seen a decline of unions.

Its time we stop begin politicians for table scraps, it’s time they fear us, it was the American Working Class that fought 2 World Wars, built the greatest democracy and the strongest economy. They should fear the American Working Class because it is just a matter of time before we rise up and take back our county.

We don’t need a violent revolution we need a labor revolutions. We need to engage with our communities, support both other unions and non-union workers. We need to bring back the picket line, the boycott, the general strike.

The most successful strikes of recent years, like the West Virginia Teachers strike and now the Untied Auto Workers Strike were not won by standing strong and standing together.

If our union leadership is to timid and weak to push back then we need to show them what a Wild Cat looks like with it strikes. We need to strike not just for our own wages but for the common good. If the railroad workers, truckers, and dock workers had whet on strike when Biden broke the railroad strike and said they would not go to work again until the U.S. Congress upheld the rights of all workers to strike and have a union they would have won. Because we have the power.