Connor Anderson – City of Portland Professional Workers Union

Become A Member!

Join The Union

Membership is the only thing that makes a union a Union!

By law, the City of Portland Professional Workers Union must represent and advocate all persons in our bargaining unit. However, only members in good standing receive all the benefits of the union. To become a member in good standing you must complete the form confirming your membership in the union.

Membership rights and duties include:

Contributing dues at an amount agreed upon by the membership.
Having a voice through participation in union decision making, voting on the contract and officers.
Representing the union as an officer, steward, serving on committees.

Most importantly, membership matters. The more people who become members, the stronger our union is and the more likely we will be to win a powerful contract with fair wages, working conditions, and strong protections for all of us.

Didn’t I Already Sign A Card?

Many of us signed cards before our May election. Those were the petition to have an election to establish the CPPW as your union, which we of course, won overwhelmingly. Those petition cards do not count as a membership card, so we are back to starting from the beginning and signing you all up as members.

Note that signing the cards will obligate one to pay dues once those are established. By becoming a member you will have input on the decision on how much those dues will be. (Currently there are no dues.)

Join our Discord! (No, not an argument.)

Email sucks, we all hate it. As a way of fostering better communication and collaboration, CPPW has established a Discord server for the members to use to engage in a more relaxed and chat-like way. Discord is a collaboration platform that was developed to support the gaming community. It has a more whimsical feel tha, say, Microsoft Teams, but it has all the same features, text, voice and video chat, file sharing, public and private channels.

If you feel comfortable diving right in, just go straight to The Water Cooler Channel and sign up. More info on getting started and how to Discord is available on the CPPW Discord Page.

VICTORY! 81% Vote in Favor!

CPPW organizers celebrate filing their petition in April, 2023. L to R, Jeff Winkler, Kurt Abe, E Specht, Ocean Eale (back), Van Le, Connor Anderson

The CPPW was victorious in its election to represent the over 700 professional workers of the City of Portland! The result was 306 for and 68 against. The 385 total ballots represented a 52% turnout of the 712 workers who were allowed to participate in the election under our Memorandum of Understanding with the City. Seven ballots were spoiled (no signature) and four ballots are under dispute with the City. This vote reflects 81.8% support for unionization.

“City workers came out strong to say that we want a voice at the table,” said Kari Koch, CPPW Organizing Committee President. “CPPW members hold critical jobs in the city. We keep programs running, turn raw data into meaningful policy options, balance the books, and are helping guide Portland through the charter reform transitions. Our members work hard for the City and now are organizing for the respect we deserve.”

CPPW’s victory makes it the second largest independent union in the state of Oregon after the farmworker union Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN) and the ninth largest public sector independent union in the nation.

“This is a historic day for our members and for Portland,” said CPPW Organizing Committee Secretary Robert Pineda. “When budgets have tightened in the past, as they inevitably do, it’s been our members who’ve felt the sting of budget cuts, furloughs, and layoffs first. While our unionized coworkers got the regular salary increases they deserved, and their rightful seat at the table to negotiate how best to deal with budget cuts, our members were lucky if they got two percent annual performance raises and are often the first ones on the chopping block. No more.