2024
Together We Rise
SEIU 49 Members,
On behalf of our Executive Board, happy New Year, 2025!
Together we rise up and get stuff done! What we accomplish together as a union is powerful and would not happen without you!
SEIU 49 Members work hard and deserve respect. Every day you keep our communities safe, healthy and clean—from hospital staff who help patients at bedsides and beyond; to Janitors who keep our schools, downtown office buildings, and hospitals and clinics clean; to Security Officers who are on the frontlines protecting transit riders and making downtown Portland safer. There are thousands of essential jobs you perform every day, and you deserve respect, reward and recognition for what you do. Our union is all about coming together to do just that: standing up to get better pay and benefits for the important work we do.
We get results. Gladys is a leader of our union at PDX Airport as a Passenger Service Agent (PSA) helping people who need a wheelchair. In 2014 when Gladys started forming her union, she earned Oregon minimum wage, which was $9.10. There were zero paid days off. If she was sick and took a day off, it was without pay. If she worked holidays, it was at minimum wage. There were no healthcare benefits, even though she is a diabetic and needs regular medical care.
Gladys and her co-workers—Stan, Sergei, Tina and others—joined together to form a union. To get higher pay and better benefits, they had to stand up to giant multi-billion-dollar corporations like Alaska and American Airlines who make their profits by paying workers as little as possible. What Gladys and her co-workers accomplished shows how powerful we are when we come together as a union: Their hourly pay has more than doubled to $18.89 an hour, and they have up to 10 paid days off a year. That’s not all — this year they are getting an affordable union healthcare plan! Good jobs are now landing at PDX!
Raising pay and benefits for all workers in Washington and Oregon is a huge part of our union’s mission. We demand more money at the bargaining table, and we also engage in political efforts to change laws to be better for working people. Profit-hungry corporations and the politicians they support strongly oppose passing laws that put more money in workers’ pockets.
Despite this opposition, we rose up together and successfully passed laws that increased minimum wage to $15.95 in Oregon and $16.66 in Washington; that is a lot higher than the federal minimum which is still only $7.25. We also won laws to create Paid Family Leave that allow us to take time off when we need to do things like recover after surgery or stay home with our newborn babies a little longer. These higher minimum wages and new benefits help us push at the bargaining table to get even better compensation for our skills and experience.
This past summer, leaders of our union like Santa and Renato united our Janitor members to ensure Janitors in the Master Union Contract are getting $5 an hour in raises over the 4-year contract. We also protected affordable healthcare, and we won Christmas and New Year’s as paid holidays. You better believe if it were not for our union, the big real estate corporations and banks who own the buildings our members clean would pay people as little as possible so they could rake in more profits off our labor to buy more yachts or summer homes or whatever rich people buy while we do the work. Si se puede; yes, we can!
There is a stark difference for healthcare workers right now between what we have accomplished at our union hospitals versus what workers in hospitals who do not have a union are experiencing. Keven, one of our SEIU 49 leaders and a Kaiser Patient Access Representative (PAR), recently met with non-union hospital workers who do the same job but make $10 less an hour! The non-union PARs also work in a hazardous environment that they have not found a way to fix without a union. Keven shared that on top of making $10/hour more in our union, he is receiving 21% in guaranteed raises over the 4 years of his contract. The free SEIU Education Fund is a benefit almost all our healthcare members have, but it’s not available to non-union workers. Keven is helping the non-union hospital workers organize with our union because if they win, he and his co-workers win by driving pay and benefits up for all workers.
Health systems executives at non-union hospitals prefer their hospitals to stay non-union because they get to call all the shots. In 2025, we will continue to rise up together to make sure all healthcare workers in Oregon and Washington are able to organize with our union and have a voice on the job.
To get more information on our free healthcare education programs, click here.
When we stand up together against big corporations and billionaires, we are able to put people before profits. The results we get are something that big business doesn't like—better lives for working families. In the months ahead, they are going to try to stop us by keeping workers divided and making life harder for working people. Executives have been making billions by jacking up prices on things we need—from rent, cars, credit card rates, and eggs and milk; they want to make even more money by taking our hard-earned dollars.
It’s harder for CEOs to get richer when workers are in unions with the ability to bargain. We expect to see a lot of federal efforts to eliminate laws that protect safety on the job, that allow the ability to organize unions, and that protect against discrimination. Given these threats, our union is more important than ever. We’ll be asking you to join us as we stand up for our right to bargain and have strong unions. Sign up for text alerts to make sure you are getting all the information.
This past summer, I was fortunate to be able to visit London with my son. It is the birthplace of my great-grandfather, and it was so special to visit the Abbey where our family had worshipped. My ancestors fell on hard times when my great-grandfather was young. He had to go to work as a sailor and wound up emigrating to America to make a better future possible for our family. I believe everyone deserves that same opportunity to find sanctuary and build a better future in America, whether immigrating from the UK, India, China, Mexico, Somalia, Ukraine, Syria or beyond.
Our union has always been about being stronger together, and we were founded more than 100 years ago by immigrant Janitors. We won’t fall for divide-and-conquer tactics that place the blame for how the cost of things like gas and groceries are somehow the fault of immigrants rather than billionaires and corporations selling these goods. We are united in defending our immigrant communities and demanding safety and respect for all. If you want to know more about your rights, visit seiu49.org/immigration.
2025 will bring many more opportunities for us to rise up together. PeaceHealth members from Longview, WA to Springfield, OR are united for quality care and quality jobs. Legacy Health System members have welcomed our newest members at Legacy Mt. Hood and are sticking with their union as they push for higher pay and job security in the face of a merger with OHSU. More than 200 Multnomah County Security Officers are joining our growing Security membership.
We will be making our voices heard in the legislatures and city halls in our communities; standing up for safe workplaces and access to affordable healthcare; and ensuring that Oregon and Washington are places that everyone—no matter where you are from, who you love, or the color of your skin—is welcome, safe and has a right to organize a union. If you want to support these efforts by getting involved in our political program or contributing to our Committee On Political Education (COPE) Fund, click here.
In unity,
Meg Niemi
President, SEIU Local 49
