Latest news with #SenateBill916
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Oregon lawmakers scale back proposal for unemployment strike payments amid blowback
Hundreds of educators, parents and students joined a rally Nov. 1. 2023 at Roosevelt High School in north Portland to support striking teachers. Teachers like them could soon receive up to 10 weeks of unemployment benefits under a compromise negotiated by Oregon lawmakers.(Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle) A particularly controversial measure that would give unemployment benefits to public and private Oregon workers during labor strikes survived a key Wednesday hearing after lawmakers agreed to cut the length of time in which workers on strike could cash checks by more than half. Senate Bill 916 would have limited striking workers to receiving benefits for 26 weeks, in line with the current caps on unemployment checks for Oregonians. But after the Senate rejected an amended version of the bill on Tuesday, a bicameral conference committee voted Wednesday to set a new cutoff at 10 weeks after a two-week waiting period. Committee members voted along party lines, with the sole Republican present voting against the amendments. 'I do feel like this is a massive compromise,' said Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Portland, the bill's lead author. 'It's not something I'm entirely thrilled with.' The measure would be a first-in-the-nation move by Oregon, establishing a right to strike for public and private employees while ensuring them the ability to apply for unemployment benefits. Aside from traditionally strike-exempt public employees such as firefighters and police, workers such as nurses and teachers could claim benefits after two weeks of striking. The bill has been among this session's most controversial measures, laying bare deep divisions over how best to use the state's $6.4 billion unemployment insurance fund. The changes come after support for a Democrat-led bill collapsed in a concurring Senate vote on Tuesday amid concerns from Republicans and a key dissenting Democrat. It had already drawn opposition from school board leaders who help negotiate teacher strikes, business groups, and local government leaders who contribute to the state's unemployment fund. 'We have a healthy fund today due in no small part because all the agreements in the years have been honored,' committee member Sen. Daniel Bonham, R- The Dalles, told his colleagues before voting against the amended bill. 'It is a healthy enough fund that I don't know that this will be a massive draw on it, but again the kids will lose if teachers are incentivized to strike.' House Democrats got the bill over the finish line in their chamber last week, arguing that the benefits would be used sparingly and not as a tool to prolong strikes, but to shorten them. A change made in a House committee would cap benefits to eight weeks if the state's unemployment fund is at risk, and lawmakers also included an amendment that mandates deductions in backpay for benefits claimed by teachers during strikes. Grayber on Tuesday repeated a promise she has made to continue monitoring the bill's implementation if it were to pass, but also signaled that she hoped to move past concerns that the bill would promote misuse of the unemployment system or dramatically hamper school life and public facilities. She said she's been 'guided by the math' behind the bill from the beginning, a subtle nod to the estimates from the state's employment department that the bill would not change existing tax structures for businesses and government agencies paying into the state's unemployment funding. 'I have heard the opposition,' she said. 'I very much look forward to moving past what feels like a worst-case scenario focus that we've maintained for several weeks now.' Oregonians who have lost a job can currently apply for unemployment weekly checks ranging from $196 to $836. The bill would allow benefits to kick in immediately if workers are locked out of facilities by their employer during negotiations. Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, is a sponsor of the legislation, but withdrew his support when it came up short in a 15-14 Senate vote on Tuesday. In a brief interview after the hearing, he declined to comment on whether he supported the proposed changes. He referred to another attempt at a transportation and infrastructure funding bill that the Legislature has taken up in the final weeks of the session: 'If there's time to pass a transportation package, there's time to get this right,' he said. The new amendment pushes the bill closer to a similar law passed in Washington that caps benefits at six weeks, but which doesn't go so far as to protect public employees like Oregon's proposed legislation. New Jersey and New York have also passed laws in recent years to provide unemployment benefits to striking private sector workers, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a similar effort in 2023 over fiscal concerns. Another bill extending benefits to striking workers in Connecticut is currently sitting on Gov. Ned Lamont's desk, but he is expected to veto it. The bill passed out of committee on a 4-1 vote. Rep. Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, was excused. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Oregon workers could soon claim strike payments under bill passed by House
Hundreds of educators, parents and students joined a rally Nov. 1. 2023 at Roosevelt High School in north Portland. A new bill would extend unemployment benefits to them during work stoppages. (Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Oregon could soon become the first state in the nation to extend unemployment benefits to striking workers. House lawmakers passed Senate Bill 916 Wednesday in a 33-23 vote along party lines with one dissenting Democrat, a decision that followed an hours-long debate about the bill's impact on schools, health care, and private businesses. The bill already cleared the Senate in May in a 16-12 vote, but will need to go back to that chamber before the month's end for a re-vote to clear further amendments. The legislation would allow striking workers — including most public employees — to collect unemployment benefits after their first two weeks of striking and up until the eight week of a strike, pending the financial stability of the state's unemployment fund. Several other states, including Washington, New Jersey, and New York, extend unemployment benefits and payments to striking private sector workers, but not to public employees. If unemployment funding is available, striking workers could collect benefits for up to 26 weeks. Payments range from $196 to a maximum of $836 weekly, according to a 2024 policy from the Oregon Employment Department. After the House voted down a scaled-back proposal by Republicans Wednesday morning, lawmakers debated the extent to which Senate Bill 916 would lengthen or shorten strikes, and the potential strain it could impose on schools and private business. 'SB 916 won't encourage strikes — it will shorten them,' state Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, wrote in an emailed statement Wednesday. 'It will bring employers to the table faster, and let workers stand up without having to worry that their families will starve should they choose to exercise their right to strike. Fundamentally, this legislation is about dignity and fairness for workers.' Republicans, led by state Rep. Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, sought to derail the proposal with their own measure that also would've capped benefits to six weeks of payments after the first two weeks of a strike. 'We can have the conversation about making sure that employees are paid well and they are protected and their voices heard,' Elmer said. 'This bill isn't the way — this is too much and too far.' Prior to the vote, opposition to the measure was piling up in testimony from school board leaders and business groups concerned the bill could allow strikes to drag on and put a wrench in day-to-day operations. Leaders of teacher unions and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, a statewide coalition of unions that represents over 300,000 workers, have testified in support of the bill, as have nurses, teachers and state workers. 'Regardless of income level or industry, Oregon workers all want the same things — to work hard, support themselves, and build a better life,' the Oregon AFL-CIO said in a social media post prior to the vote. 'Senate Bill 916 is an opportunity for our state to support working class Oregonians by strengthening their right to strike through expanding unemployment benefit access.' The Oregon Employment Department told the Legislature in April that the bill wouldn't result in any changes to unemployment taxes paid by employers. The bill was amended in the House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards in May to allow school districts to deduct the cost of benefits from backpay some teachers receive after a strike has ended, under union contracts. Multiple Democrats reiterated their argument following the vote that the bill would not raise costs for businesses and schools. 'I also firmly believe that this policy will help our businesses, education and healthcare communities by bringing these strikes to a close sooner and with greater certainty,' said state Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Portland, in closing the discussion on the House floor. If the bill clears its revote in the Senate, it will head to Gov. Tina Kotek's desk for final consideration. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
21-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Oregon bill extending unemployment to striking workers advances
Two Democrats cited concerns about added costs to local governments already facing financial uncertainty before joining Republicans in voting against a bill that would make Oregon the first state in the country to extend unemployment to striking public employees. Senate Bill 916 passed 16-12 after a lengthy discussion Thursday on the Senate floor to move the bill to the House of Representatives. The bill would allow all striking workers to qualify for unemployment benefits after two weeks. They would have to pay back any unemployment benefits if they later received back pay for the time they were on strike. New Jersey and New York are the only states that currently allow striking workers to collect unemployment. The legislation also would extend unemployment to striking public employees in Oregon. The bill was introduced at the request of the AFL-CIO, a labor federation representing more than 300,000 workers at 288 unions. It received three public hearings, two informational meetings and hundreds of pieces of written testimony. Republicans submitted a 'minority report' proposing an alternate version of the bill. Their proposal would have implemented a four-week waiting period, required paying back benefits with interest if a worker received back pay and prohibited striking public employees from receiving benefits. The minority report also would have required unions to maintain 'adequate strike funds' to pay striking workers before members could access state benefits. Senate Republican Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, and other Republicans said the proposal would incentivize more frequent strikes. Bonham said Republicans believed the minority report protected 'the sanctity of this trusted institution' and the consideration of SB 916 contradicted messaging from Democrats and labor unions urging Republicans 'to get back to work' during the longest legislative walkout in history in 2023. 'I was told that Oregonians who do not show up to work, don't get paid,' he said. The motion to adopt the Republicans' proposal failed along party lines, 10-18. 'We cannot expect Oregonians working in unsafe conditions for inadequate pay to do nothing,' said Sen. Kathleen Taylor. D-Portland, chief sponsor of the bill. 'We have to ensure they can keep food on the table while they fight for change.' Taylor provided a flow chart of public employee unions' bargaining process which she said showed 210 days of negotiations are required by before they can strike. The Legislative Fiscal Office estimated the legislation would have minimal impact on the state budget, based on historical strike data of 1,196 employees going on strike for an average of 8.6 weeks per strike in the last 10 years. The office estimated benefits would total an additional $2.1 million in the 2025-27 biennium. As of December 2024, Oregon's Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund had grown to $6.4 billion. Sen. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, also spoke in support of the bill, saying Oregon businesses and the state's economy and communities thrive when workers do. 'The playing field is nowhere close to level between corporations and workers, and might I add non-profit hospitals,' Meek said. 'That's why I'm in support of this bill. To help level the playing field so that workers are not forced into a contract simply because they cannot afford to pay rent, to buy their groceries or pay for child care when they are out on strike.' Meek pointed to a presentation from the Oregon Employment Department during an informational hearing on the bill, which showed unemployment insurance benefits provide an average of $196 to $836 in weekly benefits. 'No one is getting rich going on strike,' he said. Sen. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro, who served on the Hillsboro School Board, said she had long been a champion of public employees and teachers in the state. But she questioned the legislation's potential impact on the financial stability of cities, counties and schools. Sollman also said actions by the Trump administration put into question the stability and survival funds critical for Oregon, which relies on about 32% of the state budget coming from the federal government. 'Now is not the time to be adding more uncertainty and more expenses, which Senate Bill 916 would certainly do,' she said. Sen. Jeff Golden, D-Ashland, expressed similar concerns. Golden said some Oregon cities and counties are 'teetering' on the edge of fiscal failure and the bill could mean another financial strain of unknown size if their unionized employees strike for more than two weeks. He addressed union members in the gallery, asking them not to task lawmakers with making Oregon a fairer economy "on the backs of our municipalities." 'No other state in the country allows public employees to receive unemployment benefits while on strike. Oregon would be the first. It makes sense to me that no other state has done this because all of them rely on municipal partners too,' Golden said. 'I would just ask if we want to be the first. I don't.' Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Dundee, said existing labor rules and laws protect workers in Oregon and opposition to the bill did not represent opposing workers. The bill rewarded workers voluntarily choosing not to go to work, Starr added. 'That's not what unemployment insurance is about,' he said. Bonham said after the bill passed that the legislation would reward political allies at the expense of small businesses, health care facilities and schools. The Oregon AFL-CIO applauded the bill's passage. 'This bill represents real progress for working people, those who've too often been left behind by policies that favor the wealthy and powerful,' Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor said in a statement. Dianne Lugo covers the Oregon Legislature and equity issues. Reach her at dlugo@ or on X @DianneLugo This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Oregon bill extending unemployment striking workers advances
