The Oregon Senate passed legislation on March 21, 2025, that would make Oregon the first state to offer unemployment insurance (UI) compensation to strikers in both the public and private sectors.
If SB 916 is passed by the House and signed by Governor Tina Kotek (D), workers like teachers and nurses would become eligible for weekly unemployment insurance payments after being on strike for at least two weeks. The bill would not change the status of certain categories of essential workers, including police and firefighters, who are currently prohibited from striking.
While New York and New Jersey offer UI benefits to striking workers, neither state allows any category of public employees to strike.
UI benefits in Oregon are currently available to employees who have been involuntarily terminated. Weekly payments range from $196 to $836. Public employers, such as cities, counties, and other local governments, reimburse the state UI fund for benefits paid to their terminated former employees.
The AFL-CIO, a federation of labor unions requested the legislation. The bill passed 16-12 in the 30-member, Democrat-controlled Senate. All Republicans and two Democrats voted no.
Oregon has a Democratic trifecta. Democrats have a 36-24 majority in the state House. The bill was referred to the House Labor and Workplace Standards Committee on March 17.
Supporters of the Oregon bill argued the inclusion of public workers was an issue of fairness and respect for their contributions. Sen. Kathleen Taylor (D), who sponsored the bill, said, “They make it so that every day we have clean water, safe roads, safe everything. We owe them the respect of allowing this provision.” Graham Trainor, president of the Oregon AFL-CIO, argued, “SB 916 simply and modestly levels the playing field a notch by helping make sure that workers are not starved into a contract that perpetuates the ills of our society at large.”
Opponents of the bill argued it would impose new costs on cities, counties, and other public employers and incentivize strikes. Sen. Janeen Sollman (D), one of the Democratic senators who voted against the bill, said, “Counties, cities, and schools are scrambling to just maintain current services. Now is not the time to be adding more uncertainty and more expenses.” Senate Minority Leader Daniel Bonham (R) said, “Oregonians trust that we, the Legislature, will protect the sanctity of this fund so that it’s there in their time of need – not their time of want, not their time of desire.”
Republican legislators proposed an alternative with provisions to ban strikes by public workers and require unions to pay strikers out of their own funds for four weeks and reimburse the state for any UI benefits received by strikers after that time. The Republican minority report substitute was defeated along party lines in the Senate.
The Oregon Employment Department estimated that payments under SB 916 would total approximately $4.7 million over the next two years if strike trends align with the past decade, but could reach $11.2 million if strikes are more frequent or lengthier than average, as they have been in the past three years.
The Washington Senate passed a bill — Senate Bill 5041 — to provide UI benefits to striking employees on March 7 in a 28-21 vote. SB 5041 would not apply to public employees, who are prohibited from striking in Washington. California legislators approved and Governor Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed a bill in 2023 that would have extended UI benefits to striking workers.
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