Portland Association of Teachers hold a rally outside of the Portland Public Schools district office in Portland, Nov. 7, 2023, during a strike.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
A bill that would grant striking workers weekly unemployment checks is moving forward once again in the Oregon Legislature, two days after a surprising defeat in the state Senate.
All it took was striking the number of unemployment checks striking workers could claim.
Initially, Senate Bill 916 allowed up to 26 weeks worth of payments for people on extended strikes. But under an amendment introduced Wednesday — in a rare “conference committee” composed of lawmakers from both chambers — benefits are now capped at 10 weeks.
Those changes were enough to win over two Democratic holdouts who kept SB 916 from advancing Tuesday. State Sens. Mark Meek, D-Gladstone, and Courtney Neron Misslin, D-Wilsonville, supported the scaled back bill Thursday. It passed 16-12.
But little else appears to have changed for SB 916. Even with the reduced maximum benefits, state analysts do not expect the bill to have any less of an impact on the state’s $6.4 billion Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, the account used to pay out unemployment claims. That’s because, based on a 10-year analysis of past Oregon labor actions, strikes last an average of 8.6 weeks — less than the 10-week cap.
Opponents of the bill say those analyses don’t account for longer and more frequent strikes Oregon may see, now that workers will be able to count on some income while striking. Unemployment payments in Oregon range from $196 to $836 a week.
SB 916 has been forcefully opposed by business interests, local governments and school districts who worry they’ll have to grapple with more strikes and increased costs as a result.
“This is bad policy,” Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham, R-The Dalles, said in a brief debate Thursday. “It’s going to be harmful to our students. It’s going to be harmful to the state. We should set this aside.”
Labor groups, which are influential among majority Democrats, say the bill is about giving workers more leverage. They say it’s too easy for employers to wait until employees face financial strain from lost pay, then force them to accept an unfair contract.
The amended bill also sailed through the House on Thursday.
Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat and longtime labor ally, has said she plans to sign the bill.
“At the end of the day, I support the right of folks to strike,” Kotek told reporters Monday. “And I believe the way the bill is crafted, we will actually see shorter strikes if they happen to begin with.”
If passed, SB 916 would make Oregon the first state in the nation to grant unemployment pay to striking workers in both the public and private sectors. The three states with similar laws — New York, New Jersey and Washington — do not give public workers the right to strike.
Washington’s law is also brand new. It passed earlier this year. Beyond applying to only private workers, it only grants six weeks of possible unemployment benefits.
