Don McIntosh

Almost two years after unionizing with AFSCME Local 1790, workers at the nonprofit homeless shelter operator Do Good Multnomah still have no union contract. But they’ve become expert at negotiating over layoffs.

U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley sat for a photo, above, with leaders of Ironworkers Local 29 (From left, vice president Tyler Smith, apprenticeship coordinator Kevin Crocker, and business manager Jason Fussell). The image is a nod to a famous 1932 black-and-white photo of 11 ironworkers supposedly eating lunch while sitting on a steel beam of the under-construction RCA Building in Manhattan. (That historic photo was staged for publicity, and so was this one.) | Photo courtesy Merkley's office

Verna Porter — a nurses union member and outspoken advocate for senior citizens — died of natural causes June 29, 2026 at age 91.

The Very Rich Pay Their Fair Share Act will not be on the November 2026 ballot in Oregon.

For 387 workers and their families, the news landed like a sucker punch July 29. Daimler Trucks North America is closing its Portland truck plant effective Oct. 30.

Recently, JH Kelly President and CEO Mason Evans shared that the company has not wanted or needed an administrative union for over 100 years and does not need or want one now. I appreciate his encouragement for employees to ask questions. I agree that employees should gather as much information as possible before making an important career decision.

ORGANIZING AHEAD: National AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler, alongside WSLC president April Sims above, talked up plans to bring 2 million more members into the American union movement by 2032. | Photo courtesy WSLC

A Portland ballot measure to tap clean energy funds to increase the number of police officers has failed to qualify for the November ballot. Backed by the Portland Police Association, the campaign turned in 62,000 signatures on July 6, but city elections officials disqualified 498 signature sheets for reasons like sloppy circulator signatures or dates having been crossed out and overwritten. Then Multnomah County elections officials used statistical sampling method to invalidate signatures from signers who don’t live in the City of Portland, aren’t registered to vote, or whose signatures didn’t match those on file. In the end, they determined that there were 34,130 valid signatures, 6,307 short of the required 40,437 minimum.

WHERE THE DEER AND THE ANTELOPE PLAY A mule deer bounds along a rise on Gordon Ridge Road near Biggs, Oregon. Wind turbines line the north side of the Columbia River near Maryhill, Washington.

The new law will also promote pre-reviewed housing designs and eliminate a requirement that manufactured homes have a permanent chassis.