Murmurs: PCC Spent $260,000 on Unemployment Benefits During Strike

PCC SPENT $260,000 ON UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS DURING STRIKE: When Portland Community College’s faculty and academic professionals union went on strike in March, the college became a testing ground for what was arguably the most controversial bill to come out of the 2025 legislative session. Senate Bill 916, which allows striking workers to access unemployment insurance during their time on the picket line, made Oregon the first state in the nation to require public employers to pay such benefits. Now we know how much that cost PCC. James Hill, a spokesman for the college, says it estimates it will incur about $260,000 in unemployment claims associated with the strike. (The average striking worker may claim unemployment starting in the third week of a strike, the same week the faculty union’s strike was resolved at PCC.) That number is significantly lower than the $1.45 million the college estimated it might have to pay each week, if all striking workers had filed claims. Public employers, often known as “reimbursing” employers, don’t opt to pay unemployment contributions to the state on a regular basis. Instead, such employers often reimburse the state dollar for dollar, which drove many public agencies to warn that the legislation would financially drain them. And while the state can relieve public employers of costs if they negotiate back pay agreements, PCC opted not to. The strikes at PCC were the first at a community college in Oregon’s history, and may have had broader implications for the institution. PCC president Adrien Bennings voluntarily separated from the college on May 14. The college’s board of trustees voted 6–1 to approve a $261,000 severance package—$1,000 more than it spent on striking workers—among other perks. Two of the community college’s largest unions overwhelmingly cast votes of no confidence in Bennings’ leadership during the strike. They were joined by PCC’s student government.

BLAZERS MAKE SWEEPING LAYOFFS UNDER NEW OWNER: The Portland Trail Blazers laid off at least three dozen staff members on the business side of the operation Tuesday morning, people familiar with the decision tell WW. The layoffs are the latest signal of deep organizational change at the NBA franchise under its new owner, Dallas billionaire Tom Dundon. Dewayne Hankins, Blazers president of business operations, confirmed the layoffs to WW in a statement. “Today, as part of our plans to position the organization for the future, we made the difficult decision to restructure several areas of the business,” Hankins wrote. He did not specify how many employees lost their jobs. The layoffs total about 20% of the business operation and reach as high as a senior vice president, people familiar with the matter tell WW. And the layoffs come at a pivotal moment for the Blazers. The team is negotiating with the city of Portland and Multnomah County to secure $600 million in public funding for an overhaul of Moda Center. Dundon, whose ownership group paid $4.2 billion for the team, is under national scrutiny for his cost-cutting measures.

CONTROVERSIAL CITY COUNCIL PROPOSAL DIES: The Portland City Council voted down a controversial budget amendment Tuesday that would have taken $10 million from the new Community Board for Police Accountability to partly restore cuts to the fire and police bureaus in Mayor Keith Wilson’s proposed budget. The amendment, championed by Councilor Olivia Clark, died by a 6–6 vote. The CPBA is a 21-member board that will investigate allegations of police misconduct. The CPBA office currently has no staff, and the board hasn’t selected a director. Clark and councilors who backed the proposal said it was a common-sense way to restore some of the steep cuts made to police and fire in Wilson’s proposed budget—by taking from an office that hasn’t been set up yet but is poised to have a $16 million budget this year. Members of the council’s progressive caucus, on the other hand, argued the amendment would betray voters’ desires, given that the CBPA was created by a 2020 ballot measure passed by 82% of voters. “I ask my colleagues not only to reject the amendment, but [to reject] the contempt that comes with it that we would be holding Portlanders in if we adopted it,” Councilor Sameer Kanal said. The 2020 measure mandated that the CPBA and its supporting office have a budget equivalent to no less than 5% of the Portland Police Bureau’s annual budget—hence the $16 million the board is set to receive this year.

OREGON AGAIN TOPS LIST FOR NURSE PAY: Registered nurses in Oregon make $59 an hour on average, more than their counterparts in any U.S. state when adjusted for cost of living. That’s according to a new analysis of fresh federal data by Becker’s Hospital Review, which placed Oregon in the top spot nationwide for the second straight year. Oregon did not always have this distinction. Its RN wages ranked 19th in a similar 2023 Becker’s analysis. But Oregon’s nurse pay ranking ascended as its cost of living relative to other states went down while wages continued to rise. Many health care professionals, like doctors, of course, earn far more, but RNs, numbering about 40,000 in Oregon, make up one of the largest workforces in the state (Oregon’s roughly 42,000 home health and personal care aides make far less—$21 an hour on average, according to federal data). Oregon does not stand out so much for wages adjusted for cost of living in other health care occupations—like physician assistants and nurse practitioners. The high nurse pay ranking in particular underscores the power of the Oregon Nurses Association, which has negotiated contracts and fought for policies that push nurse wages higher. Hospital leaders frequently tie ballooning health care expenses in part to rising labor costs. But ONA spokesman Peter Starzynski says this “talking point usually comes from hospital executives and corporate health systems trying to blame front-line caregivers instead of looking in the mirror.”