Three City of Portland Worker Unions Representing Over Half the City Workforce (Nearly 4,000 Workers) Hold “Just Practicing” Rally for Fair Contract

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Video of rally with interviews

PORTLAND, OR – Sept. 16, 2026 – Members of three City of Portland workers unions held a high-visibility rally on Wednesday, Sept. 16, outside Portland City Hall while City Council was in session. Together, the City of Portland Professional Workers Union (CPPW), Laborers’ International Union of North America (LiUNA), and Professional & Technical Employees Local 17 (PROTEC17) represent nearly 4,000 City employees, nearly half the City workforce.

Members filled the area outside of City Hall while bargaining team members went inside to give public comment to City Council. “Mayor Wilson, would rather give a billionaire who made his money on predatory car loans a hundred million dollars to add box seats to the Moda Center than give workers real Cost of Living Adjustments,” said Kevin Block, CPPW Chief Steward, in a speech to the crowd.

Workers hit by inflation, demand fair contracts

Workers rallied to demand real cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), fair wage increases, and respect on the job. In this time of rising costs, tying COLA to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is critical to ensure dedicated City staff can continue to afford to live in the City they serve.

While signing their pledge to strike, a PROTEC17 member noted in reference to the ballooning of highly paid senior leadership positions in the new City governance structure, “This is about fairness. It is unacceptable to ask workers to take pay cuts while the leadership class thrives.” According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, for one adult with one minor dependent, the living wage in Multnomah County is $110,697.60.

The labor unions voiced their readiness to take further action if reasonable contract agreements are not reached through mediation.

Possibility of a strike would have far-reaching impacts

The 4,000 workers in these three unions make up nearly half of the City of Portland’s workforce. Members hold diverse roles throughout the City, including maintenance workers, engineers, landscape crews, community center staff, information technology staff, environmental specialists and regulators, payroll and timekeepers, analysts, program coordinators, financial analysts, communications staff, community grant managers, and Portland Street Response crisis responders.

All three unions have been in protracted negotiations with City leadership for the past seven to nine months. Traditional bargaining has ground to a standstill triggering mediation with state mediators. The City’s failure to seriously engage in mediation and find agreement could force an impasse and a move by members to strike. 

With all three unions heading toward the possibility of a strike on similar timelines, the impact would be widespread and affect services and programs across the City. This would reach from tap to drain, from potholes to parks, from community centers to watersheds, from administrators and financial analysts to program coordinators and grant managers and beyond. 

Unions urge Mayor to settle the contracts

Union leaders stress that members are being pushed to the limit by the drawn-out negotiations, and Wednesday’s demonstration expresses the desire for resolution. 

“Our members provide services that Portlanders care about, and we would rather be serving the community than be forced to go out on strike,” says Kari Koch, CPPW President. “The City is refusing cost-of-living adjustments in our contracts, instead offering wage increases only for some workers, and those offers are less than the rise of inflation. Workers deserve respect, a fair deal, and to be able to afford to live in the City we serve.” 

Together, CPPW, LiUNA, and PROTEC17 are urging Mayor Wilson to empower his bargaining team to settle the contracts so that union members can keep the City that works working.

“City leaders can’t have it both ways. While workers are bargaining for fair wages and COLA, the Mayor says the City is broke. Yet at the same time, his administration wastes millions on expensive contracts, handing out more than $1.3 million so far in severances to upper management, and gambling city resources to please out-of-state billionaires,” said Kari Koch, President of CPPW. “It doesn’t add up.”

About CPPW:

The City of Portland Professional Workers Union (CPPW) represents roughly 800 workers across every office and bureau in the City. Formed in 2023, CPPW is one of the City’s newest unions representing the City’s administrative specialists, analysts, coordinators, financial analysts, multimedia specialists, and technology business representatives. CPPW members do the essential, often invisible, work of keeping every public program, project, and operation running.  

The City of Portland has been in active bargaining with CPPW for nine months on a reopener, an agreement in the June 2025 contract to renegotiate certain articles in January 2026. Priorities for CPPW members at the bargaining table include basic COLA, standard wage increases, and layoff protections on par with other union contracts. CPPW has been bargaining with the City since January and in mediation since Aug. 25, a process the bargaining team describes as marked by City leadership’s unpreparedness and indifference. 

“The City had 10 weeks to prepare for mediation and showed up on the first day with nothing: no proposals, no ideas, no respect for the workers who run this city every single day,” said A Pérez, Co-Chair of the CPPW bargaining team.

About LiUNA:

LiUNA Local 483 represents 2,155 employees across Environmental Services, Permitting & Development, Parks and Recreation, Fire, PBOT, Fleet, Water and Police. Our wastewater services protect our rivers. We repair bridges, roads, sidewalks and bikeways. We maintain Portland’s Gold Medal parks system and provide safety and assistance to keep the parks user-friendly for everyone. We keep community centers running with programming for the whole community. We are the first to respond in weather emergencies like snow and ice events and heavy flooding. From maintenance workers to park rangers, from landscape crews to recreation and aquatics coordinators, as public workers we work hard to maintain a high quality of life for the people  of Portland.

LiUNA’s Portland City Laborers (PCL) and Recreation worker contracts are both in the bargaining process. Bargaining on the LiUNA PCL contract (which expired on July 1) began on Feb. 18. Mediation begins on Sept. 22. Bargaining on the Recreation contract (which expires Sept. 30) began on Feb. 12 and is expected to last beyond the expiration date.

About PROTEC17:

PROTEC17 has nearly 1,000 members at the City of Portland. PROTEC17 Portland members keep the city moving, performing vital services in nearly every bureau that benefits the Portland community. PROTEC17 represents a broad range of technical employees, including engineers, IT, planners, technicians, environmental and botanic specialists, and Portland Street Response crisis responders.

PROTEC17 has been bargaining with the City since May of 2025 and has been working without a contract since January 2026. In April, more than 700 members signed a petition to the Mayor demanding cost-of-living adjustments remain tied to inflation, that the City honor the results of a classification and compensation study agreed to nine years ago, and support for workplace flexibility. This is the first time in the Portland Chapter’s history that a deal could not be reached during regular contract negotiations.

Media Contacts: 

Kari Koch

Ryan Sotomayor