The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled September 16 that the affordable-housing exemption from prevailing-wage requirements applies to projects that convert existing buildings, reversing a Bureau of Labor and Industries determination against developer DevNW's 17-unit church conversion in Salem. DevNW's CEO said BOLI's determination added about $50,000 per unit, a 13% increase in overall costs. The ruling is not retroactive, and BOLI declined to comment on whether it will appeal.
BOLI told DevNW in an Aug. 30, 2022 letter that the project did not qualify because it involved renovating a church rather than an apartment building or single-family home.
In Jacobin, sociologist Vivek Chibber argued that organized labor is the only viable mass base for the socialist left, and that socialists supply a direction unions lack; he said that without a revived labor movement, progressive legislation will stay within limits employers find acceptable. He cited overall union density just below 11 percent, private-sector density around 6 percent and public-sector density around 33 percent, against union approval he described as the highest since the 1950s.
The piece is adapted from an episode of Jacobin's Confronting Capitalism podcast, in which Chibber was interviewed by Cale Brooks.
Hamilton Nolan argued that unions should endorse and back socialist candidates, writing that socialists have been winning elections across the US often without organized labor's support. As evidence he cited the 2025 New York City mayoral race, in which he said only a small number of local unions such as UAW Region 9A endorsed Zohran Mamdani, while 1199SEIU, 32BJ SEIU, and the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council endorsed Andrew Cuomo and the United Federation of Teachers made no primary endorsement.
Nolan is the author of the 2024 book on the labor movement, "The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor."
The King County Regional Homelessness Authority made its first round of layoffs August 25: a spokesperson confirmed 10 people were laid off, one resigned beforehand, and six vacant positions will stay vacant, with laid-off staff receiving no severance and one month of paid administrative leave. The same day, the agency's two top executives told a King County Council committee that an outside consultant is still tracing $8 million in unreconciled funds identified by this year's forensic audit, a figure COO William Towey said could be higher.
CEO Kelly Kinnison told staff not to expect additional layoffs until after October 5.
WW reported that around 1 in 6 members of IBEW Local 48 is out of work and that Portland-area union electricians are moving by the hundreds to Boise, where the Micron fabrication campus expansion pays $65 an hour plus a $200 daily stipend. The article reported that Local 48 gave $400,000 to Gov. Kotek's reelection campaign in June and, with Ironworkers Local 29, rescinded its endorsement of Councilor Mitch Green in early July over his opposition to the $2.5 billion Bull Run filtration project and the proposed $600 million Moda Center remodel. Green retains endorsements from AFSCME and the Portland Association of Teachers.
IBEW Local 48 has around 6,000 members; Local 48 business manager Garth Bachman called Green's opposition a "betrayal of the working class" when the endorsement was rescinded.
AFSCME Local 88, which represents about 4,000 Multnomah County employees, endorsed Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards for county chair, days after the Oregon Nurses Association did the same. Per the latest state filings reported by WW, Brim-Edwards has raised $162,503 this year to Shannon Singleton's $23,095; WW reported that Singleton has significant progressive support of her own, including from the left flank of the Portland City Council.
Brim-Edwards already held endorsements from all six mayors in Multnomah County as of April 2026.