ODOT labor union members are emailing layoff notices to lawmakers – BikePortland

Sources tell BikePortland that Oregon Governor Tina Kotek will announce details of a special legislative session sometime this week as fallout from the legislature’s failure to pass transportation funding continues to pile up. That tip comes as no surprise, given the acuity of the crisis and the pressure the governor is under to do something about the mass layoffs that have already begun at the Oregon Department of Transportation.

One major pressure point for Kotek is labor unions, who launched a lobbying campaign over the weekend that encourages members to email their state representatives and attach a photo of their layoff notice, “so legislators can hear directly how all of our lives are being negatively impacted by their lack of action.”

Over the weekend, an ODOT employee forwarded an email to BikePortland from the Association of Engineering Employees of Oregon (AEE), a union that represents over 1,000 workers across several state agencies. AEE has teamed up with the local SEIU 503 union for several meetings with the State of Oregon over the past two weeks.

In an email from AEE to their members on Saturday (July 12), they said SEIU, “are hearing legislators don’t believe the layoffs are real at ODOT.” SEIU has a tool on their website where laid off employees can record a video that will be sent directly to their representative.

AEE and SEIU report some success at negotiating better terms for impacted workers, but the layoffs have not been stopped.

According to data reported by Willamette Week on Sunday, hundreds of workers have already received layoff notices. 88 ODOT employees from Region 1 are part of the job cuts, with a majority of them from Multnomah County.

Preserving jobs will be the top priority for Kotek when she brings lawmakers back to Salem. While she might get all Democrats on board with scaled-down legislation that raises revenue from a mix of fuel taxes and other fees, it still looks unlikely that Republicans will do anything to help.

House Republican Leader Christine Drazan (a former gubernatorial candidate who lost to Kotek in 2022) told KOIN News last week that blame for the layoffs falls squarely on Kotek and Democrats. Drazan said a Republican-backed bill should have been passed instead, but that bill was a political non-starter from the get-go and never had enough support to pass.

Kotek will need line up not just enough political support for any new package in a special session, she’ll need to line up a procedural path that thwarts all the obstruction Republicans are likely to throw at it.