OSEA President
Historic things are happening at OSEA! As I write this, I have just returned from a day of outreach and organizing in chapters around the State Office for OSEA’s Intensive Membership Drive (IMD). It feels great to spend the day with member activists, building union skills, supporting one another and strengthening our union. If you are one of the 55 members who volunteered between Oct. 20th and Oct. 25th, thank you! We brought joy, knowledge, and that amazing OSEA spirit to more than 130 worksites and showed everyone at those sites what OSEA is all about.
And what are we about? We often say that OSEA is a member’s union – it’s even part of our trademarked logo! That is more than just a slogan; it’s a promise to each and every member that you matter. In our union, your voice will be heard. If you stand with us, we will stand with you, through thick and thin and back again. We are ‘A Member’s Union’! We are YOUR union!
As OSEA members, we have a voice on the job and protection from retaliation when we advocate for ourselves. That’s powerful. So powerful, in fact, that there are groups founded with the sole purpose of taking away our union and our voice.
You may have noticed an increase in solicitations from the so-called Freedom Foundation/Opt-Out Today, who have been blanketing OSEA chapters with mailers, fake surveys and more. They use misleading messages and outright lies to try to convince education workers to cancel our OSEA membership. We are not alone – they are spending millions of dollars trying to take down unions across the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
The Freedom Foundation lies to us, but they are honest with the wealthy corporate interests that fund them: their ultimate agenda is to repeal laws that guarantee workers’ basic rights, like minimum wage, overtime and equal pay for equal work. Our unions are the biggest obstacle in their way!
When workers stand together, we win better wages, benefits and working conditions. In communities with high union involvement, unions improve compensation and working conditions for all workers. That’s why our solidarity scares them. So please, the next time you get a mailer from the Freedom Foundation, Opt-Out Today or anyone else telling you to drop your membership, put it where it belongs: the trash.
A strong, inclusive, active union is how we can ensure that workers’ rights remain strong, now and for future generations. Oregon is a leader in this movement. Workers in other states want the protections we have here. We have to fight to keep our rights, not just for ourselves, but for every worker out there who deserves dignity in the workplace. Every time you toss a deceptive mailer, every time you attend a chapter meeting, every time you talk to a coworker about joining OSEA, you are building our union’s strength. Thank you!