Striking workers in Oregon are a step closer to receiving unemployment checks after House vote Wednesday

By DIRK VANDERHART/Oregon Public Broadcasting

SALEM — Oregon is one step closer to becoming the first state in the nation to grant weekly unemployment checks to public employees who go on strike.

In a 33-23 vote Wednesday largely along party lines, the Oregon House passed Senate Bill 916. The bill now heads back to the Senate, which passed a previous version in March. Rep. David Gomberg, D-Otis, voted in favor of the legislation.

If signed into law, SB 916 would allow all workers — whether public or private — to receive unemployment pay two weeks after going on strike. Those payments are currently available to employees who are out of work through no choice of their own.

Pushed by labor unions that are influential among majority Democrats, the bill is aimed at giving workers more leverage in labor disputes.

Proponents often talk of dire financial consequences for striking workers, who sometimes must resort to crowdfunding or borrowing money to pay their bills. They say SB 916 will offer a measure of security so that employers cannot wait until workers are forced to accept a bad deal because of finances.

“We have seen this done time and time again,” Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland, said in floor debate, urging colleagues to back a proposal he said would “level the playing field just a little so that workers aren’t starved into a contract.”

Opponents say the bill will ensure strikes are more common and longer-lasting, and risks worsening Oregon’s reputation as an unfriendly state for business. They also argue that increasing pressure on the state’s $6.4 billion Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund will force tax hikes on the private employers who make quarterly payments into the system.

“We know if this passes, it will affect small businesses. Full stop. Period,” said Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany.

The Oregon Employment Department has said higher rates for employers would not be necessary if Oregon sees a typical number of strikes in the coming years. Assuming similar strike activity as the state saw over the last three years, the agency estimated the state would see unemployment payments of $5.9 million for striking public employees and $5.3 million for private workers in the upcoming two-year budget cycle.

Those estimates would be far off if strikes were to become more frequent as a result of SB 916. Unemployment payments in Oregon range from $196 to $836 a week.

“I wouldn’t be standing here today if I thought this bill would lead to a massive increase in strikes,” said Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, a nurse and union member. “It will bring employers to the table faster, prompting many of them to bargain in better faith.”

A growing number of Democratic states are taking up the question of whether to grant striking workers unemployment pay. That includes Washington state, which passed a policy of its own this year.

But no state with such a law allows public workers to strike like Oregon. In recent years, the state has seen weeks-long strikes in both the public and private sectors, including walkouts by Portland Public Schools teachers and nurses at Providence.

As a nod to those concerns, Democrats included language in the bill to ensure school districts can deduct any unemployment payments to striking workers from their overall pay. Even so, school districts opposed the bill.

“Strikes undoubtedly add pressure to the bargaining process,” Stacy Michaelson, a lobbyist for the Oregon School Boards Association, wrote in testimony. “In the context of schools, they also cause disrupted and/or lost learning time. We believe that anything that increases the odds of a strike is not in the best interest of students.”

Lobbyists for Oregon cities say the bill will hike costs when public employees go on strike and cities are forced to hire temporary workers.

As they had in the Senate, House Republicans offered a counterproposal they urged Democrats to accept. A so-called minority report introduced on the floor Wednesday would have set a six-week cap on benefits for striking workers — the limit set in Washington’s law. Payments under SB 916 max out at 26 weeks for striking workers, the same as for all others receiving benefits.

Rep. Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, argued the GOP proposal would ensure businesses didn’t relocate to Washington because of the policy.

“Why would we not adopt a common-sense change to at least try to align us with Washington on this policy?” Elmer said. “Do we want to make Oregon even less competitive?”

But Democrats suggested following Washington’s lead wasn’t enough.

“We are primed more than any other state in the nation to pass a model version of this legislation,” said Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Portland, a chief sponsor of the bill. “We are called on to be leaders and, colleagues, I believe this is leading.”

The GOP counterproposal failed in a 22-33 vote, with one Democrat, Rep. April Dobson of Happy Valley, voting in favor.

The vote, while expected, was immediately met with disdain by detractors and enthusiasm from supporters.

“Oregon’s unemployment insurance system was designed to support people who lose work involuntarily,” Oregon Business & Industry, the state’s largest business lobbying group, said in a statement. “Using taxes paid by employers for this purpose to, instead, subsidize voluntary work stoppages will harm Oregon’s businesses and further erode the state’s appeal for business investment.”

Meanwhile, the Oregon AFL-CIO, a federation of labor unions that proposed the bill, hailed the vote.

“Our mission to build a fair and just economy for all working people hinges on bold, progressive policies like SB 916B,” Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor said in a statement.

SB 916 saw changes on the House side, including a tweak that caps strike benefits at eight weeks — as opposed to 26 weeks — if the fiscal health of the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund falls below a certain threshold. Because of those amendments, the bill now heads back to the Senate.

• This story originally appeared June 4, 2025 on Oregon Public Broadcasting.