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December 2, 2016 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
...Housing state of emergency
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Paula
It’s not enough, says the
union-backed group Portland
Tenants United.
“No one facing a $500 rent
increase is going to say, ‘Thank
God for the housing bond,’”
says Lewis & Clark College in-
structor Margot Black, who
helped found the group.
At a Nov. 18 press conference
outside City Hall, Portland Ten-
ants United called on City
Council to enact rent control. As
practiced in other U.S. cities,
rent control limits rent increases
to a certain maximum, such as
the overall rate of inflation. Rent
control is by far the most potent
tool to stop runaway rent in-
creases, but the Oregon Legisla-
ture, at the request of the land-
lord lobby, enacted legislation in
1985 prohibiting Oregon cities
from enacting rent control ordi-
nances. Oregon House Speaker
Tina Kotek (D-Portland) said
she’ll seek to overturn that pro-
hibition next year.
But Portland Tenants United
says the city doesn’t have to
wait. The state law banning rent
control provides a temporary
exception in the event of a natu-
ral or man-made disaster that
Laid-off Daimler Machinist Local 1005 member Mike
McLaren had his rent increased from $600 to $1,100 from
one month to the next. Rent increases like that are be-
coming commonplace in Portland. At Labor’s Commu-
nity Service Agency, outreach specialist Eryn Byram says
over the last year she’s seen the almost complete disap-
pearance of any Portland-area rental housing under
$1,000 a month. From mid-2015 to mid-2016, LCSA’s tem-
porary hardship assistance program helped 87 union
members with money for rent or security deposits.
materially eliminates a signifi-
cant portion of housing. Black
says Airbnb, which may have
taken more than 1,000 units off
the long-term rental market, is
such a disaster, and that it has
materially eliminated housing.
So it’s calling for the city to
enact an emergency rent freeze
— and a moratorium on “no
cause” evictions.
Steve Goldberg — a retired
longtime labor lawyer now as-
sisting Portland Tenants United
— says there is legal precedent
that would support the city’s
right to take action on a rent
freeze.
City Commissioner-elect
Chloe Eudaly, who defeated in-
cumbent Steve Novick, will be
the only renter on City Council
when she takes office in Janu-
ary. And her rent has risen 60
percent in the last four years. At
the Portland Tenants United
press conference, Eudaly said it
was her landlord’s rent increase
that made her get active politi-
cally.
“I support the call for an
emergency rent freeze, whether
that requires an act of municipal
disobedience or not,” Eudaly
said. “I argue that the cost of not
acting is much greater than any
legal penalties we may face.”
Oregon AFL-CIO political
director Graham Trainor says
housing affordability was one of
the top issues legislative candi-
dates heard on voters’ doorsteps
this election cycle, so lawmak-
ers know they must do some-
thing about the crisis.
The AFL-CIO will be work-
ing as part of the Stable Homes
for Oregon Families Coalition
on two solutions: an end to no-
cause evictions, and removal of
the prohibition on rent control.
NATIONAL
Strike at O’Hare airport
and around the country
At the world’s fourth-busiest
airport, about 500 airplane
cabin cleaners, baggage han-
dlers, janitors and wheelchair
attendants took part in a one-
day strike Nov. 29, calling for
a $15 hourly wage, a union,
and better work conditions.
The workers aren’t officially
union-represented but are
seeking to be represented by
Service Employees Local 1.
Their jobs used to be union-
represented and better paid,
but in 2011, then-newly-
elected Chicago mayor Rahm
Emanuel contracted out air-
port service work, which
meant the loss of 320 union
jobs at O’Hare. Now most of
the workers are paid $10 to
$11 an hour at firms like
Prospect Airport Services and
AirScrub Inc., and some make
as little as $8.25 an hour, Illi-
nois’ minimum wage. SEIU
has alleged unsafe working
conditions and wage theft in
complaints to OSHA and the
U.S. Department of Labor.
SEIU-sponsored Fight for
$15 campaign also held soli-
darity protests at 18 other air-
ports, and demonstrations at
more than 300 McDonald’s
restaurants across the country.