Meet Our Coalition Partner: Northwest Workers' Justice Project

NWJP exists to support the efforts of low-wage, immigrant and contingent workers to protect their workplace dignity and to improve wages and working conditions. It offers high-quality legal assistance to workers and their organizations; supports organizing efforts; educates workers, their leaders and the public about workplace rights; lobbies for better employment laws; and promotes greater access to low-cost employment legal assistance.

NWJP also leads the Oregon Coalition to Stop Wage Theft – a contingent of 36 organizations (and growing) representing labor, legal, faith, and small-business communities. The Coalition is dedicated to putting an end to the practice of wage theft by passing stronger laws, supporting stronger enforcement of existing regulations, and creating stronger communities.

NWJP believes that long-lasting change and sustainable solutions to the problems of economic and social disparities can only come from the people who are most affected by them. That’s why we are committed to supporting grassroots efforts to end injustice, amplifying workers’ voices in law-making forums, providing opportunities to workers to build and develop their leadership skills, and encouraging workers – especially those who have been disenfranchised and traditionally ignored – to participate in political and social processes that will bring about the end of structural and entrenched economic, social and environmental inequities.

NWJP's Executive Director, Michael Dale, joins Fair Shot For All for a Raise the Wage Day of Action. 

Meet Our Coalition Partner: NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon

NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon is dedicated to developing and sustaining a constituency that uses the political process to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing legal abortion.  We envision an Oregon where all people have reproductive self-determination to decide when or whether they will have children, and where every woman and transgender person who can become pregnant can exercise reproductive choices with dignity, without discrimination or coercion.

During the 2015 legislative session, we joined the Fair Shot Coalition and advocated for policies that support women, families, and communities, and give us all a fair shot at a secure future. We took an active stance on Ban the Box, End Profiling, and Paid Sick Days, and educated our members and supporters on how these issues intersect with reproductive justice. 

Every person should have the opportunity to compete for jobs and stable housing, and have the power and resources to make decisions for themselves and their families without fear of discrimination, exclusion, or harm. Leveling the playing field, creating equitable opportunity for women and families, is a reproductive justice issue.

Every person should have the right to parent children in a safe, healthy environment. Every person deserves to raise a family without fear that their children will be harmed just because of the color of their skin, their gender identity, or their sexual orientation. 

Women need to be able to take a day off of work, or even an hour or two, without the risk of losing their job to access the health care they need. Without this economic security, women’s access to health care is vulnerable and their ability to take care of themselves and their families is threatened.

We are members of the Fair Shot Coalition because economic justice and reproductive justice are intimately connected. Every woman, no matter where she lives or how much she earns, deserves a fair shot. Along with our coalition partners, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon is committed to breaking down barriers to health care and employment so that all people can have a secure future and thrive. 

NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon joining OHEA to lobby on Fair Shot issues. 

Meet Our Coalition Partner: Jobs with Justice

Portland Jobs with Justice is a coalition of nearly 100 labor, community, faith, student and environmental groups dedicated to protecting the rights of working people and supporting community struggles to build a more just society. We are a movement hub that has helped thousands of diverse workers improve their lives and the lives of their communities in the Portland Metro Area through impact research, strategic media & communications, cultural transformation, and direct action organizing and campaigning.
 
We were excited to see the Fair Shot Coalition bringing community and labor groups together and making such important connections between worksite issues and racial discrimination. We salute the many successes Fair Shot has had in its first year. We helped get folks to Salem for a number of hearings, we collected post cards, and we helped celebrate the big wins!
 
One of our contributions to the fight to raise the minimum wage is the Portland Area Campaign for $15.  Through this campaign, we will win access to a $15 minimum wage for 30,000 workers in Portland by 2017! We are doing this by uniting and coordinating unions, workers organizations, small businesses, faith institutions, and community organizations through contract campaigns, new organizing, and voluntary commitments.

Jobs with Justice rallying in Portland with Fair Shot For All. 

Meet Our Coalition Partner: Forward Together

Forward Together is a multi-racial organization that works with community leaders and organizations to transform culture and policy to catalyze social change. Our mission is to ensure that women, youth and families have the power and resources they need to reach their full potential.  By developing strong leaders, building networks across communities, and implementing innovative campaigns, we are making our mission a reality.  Race, gender and sexuality are at the center of all our work.

Forward Together a national movement building organization with an active base in several states. We staff and lead a national network of over 175 organizations called Strong Families, including a number of Fair Shot coalition members. Forward Together has staff in Portland, OR; Oakland, CA; Los Angeles, CA and Albuquerque, NM.  

Strong Families assesses policies and bills based on their potential to support families in thriving. We support policies that:

• Recognize and support families of all formations. 
• Promote equitable outcomes for all families. 
• Expand government programs and services that support family wellbeing and the wellbeing of individuals with families. 
• Remove barriers that harm families in accessing government programs and services. 
• Protect families, and the individuals that comprise them, against discrimination, profiling, and harassment. 

The 2015 Fair Shot legislative agenda of raising the minimum wage, ending profiling, ensuring all Oregonians have paid sick days, establishing ways to make saving for retirement easier and creating job opportunities for people with prior convictions and arrests are policies advance race and gender equity for families in Oregon. 

Over the course of the 2015 legislative session we activated our list on multiple Fair Shot issues. Here are some of the ways we supported Fair Shot: 

Paid Sick Days: 

• 524 phone calls to legislators
• 1036 emails to legislators
• Testimony from Forward Together Board member at joint hearing
• 6 person delegation for lobby visits with 12 legislators. 

Ban the Box:

• 228 phone calls to legislators
• 79 emails to legislators 

We continue to be excited about Fair Shot’s multi-issue approach and prioritization of race and gender equity and the work the coalition does to help families in Oregon thrive. 

Meet Our Coalition Partner: Family Forward Oregon

Our mission is to create a family-forward Oregon where all women and families can be economically secure and have the time it takes to care for a family. Today, too many families in Oregon — and across the nation, really — are forced to sacrifice one or the other. But it doesn't have to be this way.  Other countries have found ways to adjust their policies as family structures have changed in recent decades.  The U.S. is quite behind in this area, but we’re working hard to change that by engaging and partnering with parents, employers and policy-makers to shape our economy into one that works better for employees and employers.  

We co-founded the Fair Shot for All coalition with partners who share our values and goals because we know that for too many women and people of color in Oregon there are too many outdated roadblocks on the path to economic stability and success.  We also know that together our voices are more powerful — and more true.  Our work together throughout Oregon's 2015 legislative session was incredibly rewarding because the laws we supported that became law will enable so many Oregonians to move ahead financially because we removed barriers — which is really our raison d'etre. (Oy! There are too many!) In our Executive DirectorAndrea Paluso's words, 

"At Family Forward Oregon, our goal is for every woman and working family in our state to be economically secure and have a fair shot at economic opportunity without family caregiving responsibilities blocking the way. During the state's now-ended 2015 legislative session, we made impressive strides toward that goal. We extended sick time to all Oregonians, made it easier to save for retirement, protected health insurance for people out on family and medical leave, helped more families afford childcare when looking for and holding down a job, provided basic workplace protections to domestic workers, and allowed workers to share their salary information without fear of punishment to help close the wage gap. It's no stretch to conclude that these new laws will make Oregon work better for more people, especially women and families, who have waited too long for a fair shot at economic success."

The Fair Shot for All coalition is an incredibly rewarding approach to policy change.  We are grateful for strong partners and opportunities to expand our own horizons.  

Family Forward Oregon staff with Governor Brown at the Fair Shot For All bill signing. 

Portland Labor Day Picnic

On Monday Fair Shot For All joined out labor partners to celebrate Labor Day in Portland. The annual picnic was held at Oaks Park and saw around 20,000 attendees. 

Elected officials each had the opportunity to speak and it was clear that Fair Shot had made an impact this past session. Our accomplishments on Ban the Box, Retirement Security, and Paid Sick Leave were mentioned over and over again. Representative Vega Pederson even held up our postcard!

Representative Hoyle said it best when she stated, "We're going to finish the Fair Shot agenda in 2016." It's time that we raise the minimum wage to lift hardworking Oregonians out of poverty. Let's hold these legislators accountable to the promises they made on Labor Day.

Travelling Ken Allen, Executive Director of Oregon AFSCME. 

OEA Political Organizer Jenny Smith. 

Fair Shot Coalition Coordinator Christine Jarlstrom. 

Raise the Wage staffers collecting pledge cards. 

Oregon House Democrats speaking about their accomplishments in the 2015 legislative session. 

Speaker of the House, Tina Kotek. 

Mayor of Portland, Charlie Haless

Portland City Commissioner, Amanda Fritz

Meet Our Coalition Partner: Center for Intercultural Organizing

Center for Intercultural Organizing is a multi-ethnic, multicultural membership organization that leads grassroots efforts to increase access to opportunities for immigrants, refugees, and people of color through community education, policy advocacy, grassroots organizing, and intergenerational leadership development. Since 9/11, we have organized against the targeting and profiling of Muslims and other groups, while broadening our focus toward building power in immigrant and refugee communities.  CIO has engaged thousands of individuals from diverse cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds, trained new immigrant and refugee community leaders, produced hundreds of educational events and mobilized countless immigrant and refugee community members who are directly impacted by these issues to advocate on their own behalf.

The Center for Intercultural Organizing is a founding member of The Fair Shot Coalition.  For years, there was a perception that labor and community groups—particularly communities of color and immigrant and refugees—could not work together to achieve social justice, even as the attacks we faced came from the same groups.  We came to recognize that in order to be effective on the ground, in our communities,  and in the legislature, we needed to work together to build a strong and diverse alliance.  We also recognized that the demographics in Oregon and across the country were shifting quickly and we simply could not afford to continue doing “business as usual.”  We needed to collectively find a way to shift the paradigm.  The Fair Shot Campaign gave us that opportunity:  to create a new narrative that would go beyond the middle class and be led by looking at our campaigns through racial and gender justice lens.  

Our years of organizing to end profiling in Oregon,  and the coalition that was The Fair Shot Campaign, paid off with a tremendous victory in the 2015 legislature—the passage of HB 2002, a comprehensive anti-profiling bill  that provides a clear definition of profiling and requires all law enforcement agencies in the state to ban it. The definition encompasses profiling based on race, ethnicity, skin color, national origin, language, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, political affiliation, homelessness, and disability – a comprehensive definition that can serve as a model for other states.  

CIO members lobbying at the Oregon State Capitol. 

Meet Our Coalition Partner: Causa

Causa is Oregon’s statewide Latino immigrant rights organization. Causa is committed to improving the lives of Latino immigrants and their families through policy advocacy, coalition building, leadership development, and civic engagement. We were founded in 1995 by farmworkers, immigrants, and allies that came together to defeat anti-immigrant ballot measures. Over the past 20 years, Causa has become a key voice advocating on issues that impact Latino families and workers in Oregon. 

Latino immigrant families are the soul of Causa and inspire, implement, and champion our work. Causa’s constituency spans Oregon—Marion, Multnomah, Washington, Deschutes, Jefferson counties and more, and we survey them every year to ask about issues that affect their daily lives. Causa found that issues regarding employee wages and benefits were among the top priorities identified among our members. 

It should come as no surprise when statistics on economic disparities among Latinos are considered. Low-wage workers are disproportionality communities of color. 66% of Latinos earn less than $15/hour, compared to 34% of whites, while 62% of Latino workers didn’t have access to one paid sick day, compared to 47% of the general workforce, and only one-third of Latino workers have access to a retirement account through their employer. 

That’s why Causa’s work with the Fair Shot Coalition has been so important. Together, community and labor became a powerful force to pass legislation that will improve economic opportunities for all communities. Causa turned out families and workers for hearings, collected stories, organized our annual May Day march and rally featuring Fair Shot issues, and collected and delivered post cards in support of Fair Shot during the legislative session. 

We look forward to the work ahead, as Fair Shot continues to advance economic justice for all Oregon communities. Si, se puede!

Causa members with Governor Brown after she signed paid sick days legislation. 

Meet Our Coalition Partner: Basic Rights Oregon

Basic Rights Oregon is one of the state’s leading progressive organizations. We work to ensure that all lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer Oregonians experience equality by building a broad and inclusive politically powerful movement, shifting public opinion and achieving policy victories. From our mission come our four areas of focus: LGBTQ people of color, including immigrants and refugees; trans, genderqueer, and gender nonconforming people; LGBTQ youth; and LGBTQ people outside the Portland Metro area. These groups face a unique set of challenges that can’t be solved by one single organization, but which, rather, require a coalition effort to tackle.

Our support for the Fair Shot coalition’s priorities in the last session is a reflection of the needs of our communities. Thanks to the passage of important bills like the Youth Mental Health Protection Act, End Profiling, and Paid Sick Days, LGBTQ workers, immigrants, and people of color can live and move in a state that privileges their lives over their labor. For this same reason, we’ve endorsed the Raise the Wage campaign. LGBTQ laborers, particularly those in communities of color and transgender communities, have staggeringly high rates of poverty and homelessness. These communities deserve a wage reasonable enough for them to meet their basic needs and still care for themselves and their families. Basic Rights Oregon is committed to working with our coalition partners within Fair Shot to realize these and other policy priorities.

Jeanna Frazzini, Co-Director of Basic Rights Oregon, testifying in support of HB 2002 to end profiling. 

Meet Our Coalition Partner: Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO)

APANO is the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon. We are a statewide, grassroots organization, uniting Asians and Pacific Islanders to achieve social justice. Using our collective strengths, we seek to advance equity through empowering, organizing and advocating with our communities. Asian Pacific Islanders make up a growing segment of our state’s population at 5.5%; we are among the fastest growing racial group, from families that have lived here for many generations to newly arrived immigrants. We seek to address the disparities that exists in our communities, while also pushing back against the model minority myth. From listening to members’ stories and experiences, we know that many struggle to make ends meet, and have challenges in their workplace whether that’s due to language and cultural barriers. Our members want a solid and secure future for themselves and families; that is why APANO is involved in Fair Shot--we believe in providing an opportunity for our communities that are most vulnerable and marginalized.

This past year, APANO supported Fair Shot as an active organizational partner. One of the issues that specifically resonated with our members was working towards statewide Paid Sick Days. We brought members with direct experience working in low-wage work to provide testimony on how this bill would better the lives of workers. We know that some groups are less likely to have paid sick time such as people of color, low-wage earners, and single parents. In April, we organized a lobby day in Salem where 60 community members across Oregon met with their elected representatives to share their stories on the importance of paid sick days, and other issues on the Fair Shot agenda. We see economic justice as directly connected to racial justice. We are proud to stand with Fair Shot and advance policies that will support all our families. 

APANO members lobbying at the Oregon State Capitol. 

Meet Our Coalition Partner: Oregon AFSCME

Oregon AFSCME union represents some 25,000 workers in Oregon. Most are public employees who work for either the State of Oregon or an Oregon city, county or special district. OR AFSCME also represents private sector employees; most of which are employed by non-profit agencies that provide some form of public service. Our members play vital roles in protecting public resources while making Oregon a better state.
 
OR AFSCME recognizes our members and their families are affected by various social issues beyond the workplace, therefore, we are committed to engage on matters that impact all working families in Oregon. Through forging alliances with other labor organizations, workers and community groups who share similar values and visions, we can build a stronger and more efficient movement to improve the quality of life for all community members. Therefore, we have prioritized bringing community partners and other unions to build a Fair Shot for All coalition that creates a strong voice for all working families.
 
This past legislative session, our union committed to advance Fair Shot's legislative agenda that benefits all working people in Oregon. AFSCME was particularly instrumental in advancing the passage of paid sick days legislation and the retirement security bill. We were also supportive of the ban-the-box and anti-profiling measures.  These policy priorities strengthen our state by providing all working families a fair shot to succeed.

Oregon AFSCME participating in Fair Shot's March 18th rallies. 

Meet Our Coalition Partner: Oregon AFL-CIO

The Oregon AFL-CIO is a federation of labor unions in the state of Oregon representing over 300,000 workers.  Oregon AFL-CIO members include everyone from steelworkers and building trades’ workers, to nurses and corrections officers.  The main areas of focus of the Oregon AFL-CIO are political engagement; legislative advocacy; building community alliances; and helping workers organize unions in their workplaces. Working people in Oregon are still feeling the impacts of the Great Recession. Rather than high wage and middle class job growth, today’s economic recovery in Oregon is relying on low-wage, no-benefit industry growth largely in the service and retail sectors. At the same time more and more working people are having a hard time just getting by and providing for their families.  

The Oregon AFL-CIO is a strong voice for all of Oregon’s workers, and the missions of the Oregon AFL-CIO and of Fair Shot for All are closely intertwined.  By passing 21st century policies that create an economy that truly works for all, Oregon will be a stronger state. Every worker deserves to be able to stay home if they’re sick without losing pay; plan for a secure retirement; have a fair chance at finding employment; and be able to drive to work without fear of being profiled.

That’s why the Oregon AFL-CIO focused on Fair Shot priority policies during the 2015 Oregon Legislature, including mobilizing union members to speak up in Salem and educating both union members and working people on the solutions to the problems facing our state.  These efforts were expanded through the Oregon AFL-CIO’s Oregon Strong Voice program which facilitates alliances between community and labor groups. Oregon Strong Voice chapters held town hall events and actions to educate and mobilize communities across the state on how to build a stronger Oregon through policies that give everyone a fair shot.

Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom Chamberlain speaking at the launch of the Fair Shot For All Coalition along with former Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at Urban League of Portland, Midge Purcell. 

Raise the Wage Rally with Western Region Summer Institute for Union Women

Members of the Fair Shot Coalition and the Western Region Summer Institute for Union Women joined together at Reed College for an international gathering of advocates calling for a raise to the minimum wage for all working women. Union sisters from Canada and across the United States were present along with speakers Barbara Byrd, Secretary-Treasurer of AFL-CIO and Ed Hall, Labor Liaison with the Office of Senator Jeff Merkley. 

No Oregonian should ever work a full-time job and still struggle to make ends meet. Yet currently one in four Oregon workers brings home less than $25,000 each year—not nearly enough to afford housing, food, gas and other necessities for a family. 

Women and people of color make up the largest percentage of our low-wage workforce. Nationally, the average minimum wage worker is most likely to be a 35-year-old woman—often a mother with a family relying solely on her wages. In Oregon, women represent more than half of minimum wage workers while people of color make up about 36 percent. Latinos, Native Americans, and African Americans are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty, and single working mothers are more likely to live in poverty than single working fathers.

Raising the minimum wage is at the center of the economic debate happening both in Oregon, throughout our local communities and on a national stage. Together, we are mobilizing Oregonians and giving a voice to those who need a fair shot.

Minimum Wage Lobby Day

At today's minimum wage lobby day more than 50 people are at the Capitol meeting with legislators and delivering 3,600 petitions signed by Oregonians in support of giving working families a fair shot!

It’s time for action

It’s nearly June and the end of the legislative session is just around the corner – yet our lawmakers have yet to act on paid sick days and other key policy changes that will give hardworking Oregonians a fair shot.

Forty-seven percent of private-sector workers in Oregon currently lack paid sick time, forcing them to chose between working sick, sending a sick child to school or losing a day’s pay when they or a family member fall ill.

For the Oregonian who has worked her entire career without a single paid sick day, change cannot come fast enough.

Until there is a strong paid sick days bill on the governor’s desk, we’ll be working around the clock to make sure all Oregon workers have the dignity and respect in the workplace that they deserve.

So we’ve ramped up our efforts and raised our voices to make sure the legislature hears us loud and clear: it’s time to press forward.  

Check out our ads that deliver that important message to those who need to hear it the most.

Every Oregonian deserves a fair shot at economic opportunity. It’s time for the people we elected to make good on their promises to us.

Petition to End Profiling

Every day in Oregon, people are targeted by law enforcement based on their race, ethnicity, religion, national origin, language, housing status, sexual orientation or gender identity—in our streets and in our own neighborhoods.

Oregon is one of eight states that does not currently ban profiling. We have no way for people to report cases of profiling, no system for documenting incidents, no data to track the scale of the problem, and no tools to maintain accountability. 

There's no coordinated state policy to address it, even though 85% of Oregonians believe that law enforcement should not be allowed to profile. Those regularly targeted by police often feel like prisoners in their own communities. 

Add your name to our petition right now asking your Senators to support House Bill 2002.

HB 2002 was introduced by the Center for Intercultural Organizing and is being championed by a broad coalition of community partners throughout Oregon. It’s designed to put an end to profiling in Oregon by clearly defining the problem in statute, collecting better data, and providing a path for reporting profiling complaints.

Yesterday, we made huge progress when HB 2002 moved out of the House Judiciary Committee. Now it’s headed to the Joint Ways and Means Committee before the final floor vote in the House. 

This could be huge for Oregonians, but we need to keep reminding our Senators that we need it. We can accomplish real change if we stand together. Communities across the country are rallying together to speak out against profiling, and our voices are going to be heard. 

Add your name and tell your Senators that it’s time for things to change.

Voices from the Minimum Wage Hearing

More than 400,000 Oregonians are employed in low-wage work. The people working minimum wage jobs - women, people of color, immigrants and families - are simply not earning enough to make ends meet. No Oregonian should ever work a full-time job and still struggle to make ends meet.

All Across Oregon People are Taking Action for a Fair Shot

On March 18th, Fair Shot For All held rallies in seven cities across the state to show support for real policies that fix our broken economy and give us all a fair shot. 

Turnout was great and energy was high – it’s clear that Oregonians want real change and elected leaders to stand with them on the issues they care about.

We will continue mobilizing Oregonians in communities across the state and to make sure that voters who clearly support these issues get a chance to have their say.  It’s time for a fair shot for all!

It’s time to raise Oregon’s minimum wage!

This week, we sent a message loud and clear: Oregonians want to raise the minimum wage. More than two hundred supporters carved time out of their busy lives to make the trek out to Salem and show their support. Some waited up to four hours to tell their story to legislators. Monday was a success because of you, but the fight’s not over yet.

We need to make sure our lawmakers don’t forget why the minimum wage matters to Oregonians. If you didn’t testify on Monday, or if you did but you still have more to say, send an email to your legislators now. We started a message for you: 

Click here and make your voice heard. 

And once you’re done, share this link with your friends and family, so we can be sure our legislators won’t forget: It’s time to raise Oregon’s minimum wage!

Speaker Tina Kotek and community members from PCUN.

Share Your Story: Tell Us Why You Need a Fair Shot

Fair Shot for All is building a movement around issues that matter to Oregonians—and you play an important role.

We've seen our our power in action in across the state. Real Oregonians have shared their moving and important stories with the Portland City Council and Oregon State Legislature. 

And that’s how we’re going to win on the issues that matter to us most—being able to tell real stories about the lives of hardworking Oregonians. 

Change is long overdue. Raising the minimum wage, ending profiling, ensuring all Oregonians have paid sick days, establishing ways to make saving for retirement easier, and creating job opportunities for people with prior convictions and arrests are policies that will give every Oregonian an opportunity to succeed. 

Fair Shot for All supporters are committed because these issues are personal—they affect our livelihoods and families every single day. Legislators need to hear from you because if they don’t, they can pretend these issues aren’t important to Oregonians. We can’t let them do that. 

Share your story—as an Oregonian impacted by our issues or as a business owner who's committed to standing up for hardworking Oregonians.

Elected officials turn to the voices of real Oregonians—especially business owners and workers—to understand the issues our economy and state face. It's an important time for us to make sure that they hear us loud and clear, and we can do that by talking about our experiences as Oregonians. That's how we're going to show elected officials exactly why we need change. 

The status quo simply isn't working for many of us. For so many women, people of color, LGBTQ communities, immigrants and working families in Oregon, a fair shot hasn't been in our cards. And with your help, we’re going to change that.  

It's time to show elected officials exactly why we need change. Share your story with the Fair Shot for All coalition and tell us why you're standing up for a fair shot for all.