Local
Portland City Workers Strike Over Wages as Budget Crisis Deepens
Hundreds of Portland municipal workers walked off the job Monday after nearly a year of failed contract talks, with another union strike looming in December. The city faces a $160 million budget gap and projects an even larger deficit next year.
Hundreds of Portland city employees went on strike Monday after the city and one of its largest public employee unions failed to reach a contract agreement over the weekend, marking the culmination of nearly a year of negotiations that stalled primarily over wages and cost-of-living increases.
The City of Portland Professional Workers Union, or CPPW, represents about 800 analysts, program coordinators and other administrative specialists across city agencies â more than 10% of Portland's 7,500-person workforce. An 11th-hour mediation session Sunday failed to produce a deal.
"We are the glue. We support all of our frontline workers," said Stacy Brewster, who does communications work for the Portland Bureau of Transportation and was among the dozens of union members picketing outside City Hall on Monday.
The labor showdown comes as Portland officials continue to grapple with budget shortfalls that have led to layoffs and service cuts, creating a significant obstacle for negotiators. Elected leaders this spring slashed about 140 city jobs, shuttered homeless shelters and reduced public safety services and programs to help close a $160 million gap. City officials have said they expect another eight- or nine-figure budget deficit next fiscal year.
"City negotiations must balance the needs of individual bargaining units with the broader responsibility to maintain a fair, sustainable, and equitable compensation structure across the city, while remaining fiscally responsible and accountable to taxpayers," said city spokesperson Alison Perkins.
According to figures released by the city, Portland is offering CPPW about $9 million in wage and benefit increases above scheduled annual cost-of-living adjustments through December 2027. The union has proposed about $19.8 million in new wages and benefits, city officials claim.
But union President Kari Koch has said the city's financial analysis of the union's proposal is flawed because it factored wages for about 100 positions that are currently vacant as well as jobs that were cut in this year's budget, which CPPW did not include in its final offer of $9.3 million.
Annual salaries for CPPW members currently range between $62,000 and $173,000, according to city figures. Koch said about half of the union's members now earn less than $100,000 a year and that only a small fraction are at the top of the reported pay range.
"We deserve to be paid fairly for the work we do," said Natalie Frendberg, a program coordinator with Portland Parks & Recreation's Urban Forestry division. Frendberg said she and other workers have struggled to "keep up with the rising costs of groceries, gas, utilities, rent."
Monday's walkout is the third launched by unionized Portland city workers in recent years. In 2023, more than 600 members of Laborers' Local 483, which represents parks, transportation and environmental services workers, went on strike for several days, becoming the first municipal union in Portland to do so in more than 20 years. Last November, 11 Independent Police Review employees represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 189 held a three-day strike after labor negotiations with the city stalled.
More labor unrest appears to be brewing. Members of Laborers' Local 483 have voted to return to the picket lines in early December after the union and the city reached an impasse last month on its latest round of contract negotiations.