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In July, Service Employees International Union Local 49, part of one of the most powerful labor unions in the state, sent out a questionnaire to Portland City Council candidates to begin the union’s endorsement process for the November election.
Most of the questions were boilerplate material for a union sussing out which candidates best align with its political aims: How will you ensure government is responsive to its citizens? How do you plan to address the housing crisis? What is the role of the city when a company tries to stifle attempts at unionization?
But the union’s first question was peculiar because it took aim at a specific company that contracts with the city of Portland.
SEIU wrote in its questionnaire that Northwest Success Inc., which employs people with a range of disabilities to work as janitors in municipal buildings, is violating a city policy passed in 2020 yet is getting a free pass from Portland’s elected officials.
At issue is a policy passed by the Portland City Council in 2020, which requires that any janitorial, laundry or private security company seeking a contract with the city must obtain a “labor peace” agreement with a union, in which the company pledges to remain neutral in any union negotiations and not to block labor organizing. In return, workers pledge not to strike or create a work stoppage.
Soon after the city passed the ordinance, relations between SEIU and Northwest Success went south.
Nearly every relevant fact regarding the rupture is disputed by the two parties.
SEIU now alleges to WW that Northwest Success signed a labor peace agreement with the union in August 2021, only to “unilaterally repudiate the agreement three months later when workers sought recognition for their union with Northwest Success,” says SEIU’s political director, Yasmin Ibarra.
Northwest Success says that’s untrue, claiming it never signed a labor peace agreement with SEIU: “We tried for many months to reach a labor peace agreement with SEIU,” Deb Houston, Northwest Success’ president, said in a statement. “Unfortunately, we were unable to come to an agreement and no LBA was finalized, i.e., there is not and has not been one in effect.”
In December 2021, Northwest Success’ parent company, DPI Group (formerly DePaul Industries), sued the city of Portland in federal court over the labor peace rule. In response, the city amended its procurement policy to allow for a company to obtain a city contract without a labor peace agreement so long as the company engaged in good-faith negotiations with a union to reach such an agreement. After the city amended its ordinance, DePaul withdrew from the case in May 2023 and a judge dismissed the complaint.
The details of what occurred after the city passed its exemption are also disputed by SEIU and Northwest Success. While both the union and the company agree that Northwest Success obtained an exemption from the city, the two parties disagree about whether Northwest Success acted in good faith during labor peace negotiations.
Northwest Success says it did. Ibarra of SEIU says the company didn’t, characterizing the company’s negotiations as being “perfunctory, superficial, and bad faith.”
SEIU says it “believes that the city has erred in its decisions regarding Northwest Success, in part based on inaccurate information provided by the company to the City.”
Another thing SEIU and Northwest Solutions disagree on: whether Northwest Success’ workforce attempted to unionize in 2021.
SEIU claims that over 70% of Northwest Success’s employees in 2021 signaled support for unionization. Northwest Success says it’s “unsure” where SEIU got that number: “In 2021, Northwest Success only had seven to eight employees,” the company says.
This same city policy caused significant heartburn in 2022 when local companies complained that the policy, while well intentioned, was in fact pushing out small contractors and favoring out-of-state giants, like the national security company GardaWorld.
Judging by the questionnaire, the city’s policy is still causing fractures between unions and employers.
“Elected leaders have refused to enforce their own policy to protect the city’s financial interests and the rights of workers,” SEIU wrote in its questionnaire. The union then posed the following question to city candidates: “Please share with us your commitment to upholding this policy and what you will do to ensure that City bureaus and procurement staff will enforce and implement it in its contracting procedures.”
Cody Bowman, spokesman for Mayor Ted Wheeler, said the city is aware of SEIU’s allegations and “takes those concerns seriously.”
“We are currently gathering information from both parties. The city will determine its next steps based on what we learn from both parties related to compliance with the city’s policy,” Bowman said.
SEIU is set to make its endorsement selections Aug. 29.