Eleven employees in Portland’s police oversight office are on strike after a breakdown in negotiations.
FILE - Portland City Hall, Nov. 15, 2024.
Kristyna Wentz-Graff / OPB
The Independent Police Review workers, represented by Oregon AFSCME Local 189, argue that the city won’t commit to protecting workers’ jobs — and preventing layoffs — during the coming overhaul of the city’s police oversight system.
“We’re asking for concrete language ensuring job security,” said Independent Police Review employee Gayla Jennings in a Tuesday media statement, “just a binding agreement that the experienced administrative investigators and staff at IPR will have a guaranteed option to continue to do the important work they’ve dedicated their careers to in the city’s new police oversight system.”
Portlanders overwhelmingly voted to establish a new system to handle police officer misconduct in 2020, one that would essentially replace the current Independent Police Review office.
That department will be called the Office of Community-based Police Accountability. But that transition is still in limbo, after legal and policy delays. In the meantime, staff with the Independent Police Review continue to assess police misconduct cases.
Unionized staff fear the transition to a new department will cost them their jobs. In previous press releases, they point to a budget note adopted by Portland City Council in 2021, in which the elected officials committed to “preserving the existing positions in Independent Police Review (IPR) as permanent, ongoing positions.”
Despite the change in government — and councilors — in the years since, that note appears central to the breakdown in labor negotiations, which have stretched on since August.
“Workers are going on strike due to the city of Portland’s outright refusal to offer positions doing the same or similar work in the new police oversight board to these experienced public servants,” reads a Tuesday evening press release shared by AFSCME Local 189.
City officials say their hands are tied, due to the founding principles of the new police oversight office. City spokesperson Alison Perkins said that the voter-approved plan only allows the director of the new Office of Community-based Police Accountability, not city managers, to make staffing decisions.
“Guaranteeing direct placement would violate City Charter by overriding the Director’s authority,” Perkins said in a Tuesday email. “Any changes to the City Charter can only occur if Portlanders vote to amend the Charter.”
The small group of unionized Independent Police Review staff and their supporters are kicking off their three-day strike Wednesday with a picket in front of City Hall, where their offices are located.
It’s already made an impact. According to Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney, enough councilors have refused to cross the picket line, including herself, that Wednesday’s council meeting has been cancelled due to lack of quorum.
AFSCME Local 189 spokesperson David Kreisman said that during the strike, police misconduct cases will need to be investigated by the three Independent Police Review managers.
