9/29 Our Union Power Saved ODOT Jobs

On Monday, the Oregon State Senate passed the transportation package, ending the special session with a win for ODOT workers and all Oregonians.  

Because ODOT will now be funded, layoffs scheduled for October 15th are now cancelled. In the coming days, all workers who got a layoff notice will receive an official letter confirming that their layoff has been withdrawn. 

This victory was only possible because ODOT workers stood together and made our voices impossible to ignore. Here’s what we accomplished as a Union: 

• Hundreds of ODOT workers rallied, turned up at the Capitol during the special session in August and this month, sent emails to legislators to tell them about the real people behind the cuts, making sure they understood what was at stake as they prepared to vote. 
• Members shared powerful testimony and personal stories at committee hearings and on social media that put faces to the impact of layoffs and service reductions. 
• Members made countless phone calls to legislators urging them to save ODOT jobs.  
• Members sent their layoff notices to legislators, to ensure they understood the gravity of these layoffs.  
• Union leaders and members held multiple meetings with lawmakers across the state to make sure our message was clear: Oregon needs safe, reliable roads, and that means protecting ODOT jobs. 

This was not an easy fight, and it took all of us standing together to win. By showing up, speaking out, and refusing to back down, we secured jobs for our coworkers, and safety for the communities we serve. 

Our union power made this happen. 

Every member who rallied, testified, called, or supported this fight in a big way. Together, we stopped the layoffs and protected good ODOT jobs. 

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9/17 Special Session Postponed

We want to share an important update about the legislature’s Special Session on Transportation Funding.

The session that was planned for Wednesday, September 17 is being postponed until later this month to allow Senator Chris Gorsek additional time to recover from surgery and get clearance from his doctor to travel to Salem. The Senate will reconvene at a later date, possibly by the end of this month, to take up the ODOT funding package.

We know how important this legislation is for protecting jobs and securing funding for ODOT – layoffs are still delayed until October 15 to give lawmakers time to approve a package before then.

We will share more information as soon as a new date is confirmed for the Senate to meet – we look forward to seeing you at the Capitol when that happens to show solidarity for ODOT workers. Until then, we are sending Senator Gorsek well wishes for a smooth recovery.

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Update - Wednesday, September 3, 2025

ODOT members with Rep. Javadi

In case you missed it, the legislature’s Special Session is on hold – the Oregon Senate will not reconvene to vote on the transportation package until Wednesday, September 17th. Passing this bill requires 18 votes in the Senate, and Senator Chris Gorsek (Gresham) who would be our 18th vote, is in the hospital and unable to be present at the Capitol until then. We are hoping for a speedy recovery for Senator Gorsek. Importantly, ODOT and DAS have confirmed that layoffs will be delayed until October 15th to allow workers the security they need until a vote happens.  

We understand that this further delay is difficult for workers facing layoffs as well as their families and coworkers. The good news is that we should be able to see ODOT finally funded when the Senate convenes in a little over a week. Our advocacy helped this legislation pass the House by a single vote. SEIU 503 members were able to compel Rep. Cyrus Javadi (North Coast) to be the only Republican to vote in favor of saving our jobs. This courageous vote comes with a tremendous amount of risk for Rep. Javadi, and we are grateful for him taking a stand.  

ODOT members have been putting in overtime meeting with their legislators, sharing their stories, and helping to save their jobs. We just need to keep up the pressure for another couple of weeks. We'll keep you updated in case anything changes between now and then. 

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Second Legislative Update – Tuesday, September 2, 2025

8/28

ODOT Members Have Been Meeting with Legislators Across Oregon 

Ahead of the 2025 Special Session on Transportation Reinvestment, our union organized 13 in-district meetings and attended multiple town halls between ODOT workers and legislators. These in-person and virtual chats were an opportunity for legislators to learn more about ODOT’s role in keeping our roads safe and open – hearing directly from the people who do the work.       

ODOT started to sound the alarms about an impending budget shortfall years ago. Our crews have been asked to do more with much less. With more extreme weather events, many shops have felt those cuts and now operate with skeleton crews. 

Our work started in mid-July after layoff notices were issued, kicking off with a town hall hosted by Rep. Evans (Monmouth) on July 19th.  

In ODOT Region 2 (Clatsop County), our union organized a visit with Sen. Weber. About a dozen ODOT Region 2 members from Astoria met with Rep. Javadi at the drawbridge shop.  

ODOT members with Rep. Javadi in Astoria 

In Salem, crews at the Maintenance Yard also met in person with Rep. Mannix (Salem). The Salem shop received the bulk of the layoff notices. This was a critical opportunity to explain to Rep. Mannix the consequences of laying off hundreds of workers, especially during the wildfire season and the upcoming winter season.  

In late July, Rep. Levy (Sisters) met with over a dozen ODOT workers at the Bend shop. Workers talked about layoff notices and the critical highways they maintain and the services that they provide in Central Oregon. Due to the critical role of ODOT in Central Oregon, workers also attended a joint town hall hosted by Sen. Broadman (Bend), Rep. Kropf (Bend) and Rep. Levy.  

In ODOT Region 1, ODOT workers met with Reps. Ruiz (Gresham), Isadore (NW Portland), Dobson (Happy Valley), and Sen. Neron Misslin (Tigard-Wilsonville). Two of the meetings were over Zoom, and two were in person at the Sylvan Yard and in Milwaukie. Our members described the importance of maintaining and preserving our roads and moved all three House Representatives and the Senator to a YES vote for the Special Session. A powerful story out of our Sylvan yard showed the critical need for ODOT’s work. ODOT crews jumped into action and rescued students in 2 school buses stranded in the US 26 tunnel near the Portland Zoo. 

ODOT Member Nicholas Glantz testifying at Lake Oswego’s Town Hall 

ODOT Regions 4 and 5 had visits with Sen. Golden (Ashland) and Reps. Owens (Burns), Smith (Heppner), and Helfrich (Hood River). Other conversations took place in the Gorge and Eastern Oregon.  

SEIU 503 ODOT members have been showing up, speaking up, and letting legislators know what’s at stake if they fail to pass a transportation package during the Special Session. You can join them Friday morning at the Capitol by registering here or contact your legislator by clicking here. We’re all in this together.    

7/23

When this year’s legislative session ended without passing a transportation package, we knew there would be difficult times ahead for ODOT. But SEIU responded as a union, with workers sharing their stories to make sure everyone understood the impacts of these cuts and it's paying off: the Governor, Legislative leaders and ODOT have announced a delay to the layoffs and now they must a call a special session.

This delay only happened because of our actions as a union. We pushed for this delay to give workers more time to make life-altering decisions, while we continue to send a clear message that the legislature needs to pass a transportation package through a special session and halt the layoffs permanently. Thanks to your stories of impact, we won this delay.

Despite this delay, the only path to stopping the layoffs is a successful special session. While we don’t control the timing or outcome of the special legislative session, it is clear these changes are happening only because of our union. We need to keep telling our stories to make sure people understand the impact Oregonians will face from these massive cuts to ODOT and to save our jobs.

We are working out the details as to how exactly this delay will shape the process ahead. As of right now, we know that if you are facing a layoff, it will be delayed until September 15th, allowing you to keep your health care through October. 

In the meantime, we need to keep the foot on the gas:  

1. Keep sending layoff letters to your legislators here.
2. Keep sharing your stories through short videos.
3. Send an email to your legislator demanding they support a special session. 

Your actions are making a difference, and it shows that we don’t have to accept defeat. When workers come together in a union, we can decide our own future! 

7/17

Below is a letter that ODOT Sublocal President Lee Erickson, VP Jason Lawrence, Executive Director Melissa Unger and Union President Johnny Earl sent today:

7/12

This week, our Union met numerous times with ODOT leadership, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), Legislative leadership and the Governor’s office. We have put pressure on all these decision makers to center the workers that are being impacted by the failure to pass the transportation package and the importance of negotiating an agreement that mitigates some of the negative effects of this situation. 

Late last night, we came to an agreement with the DAS on two letters of agreement that address some of the concerns we have heard from workers over the last week. There is more to be done, and your participation is critical for the next steps.

Here are some key highlights of the agreement (full agreements can be found here and also here):

• For workers who received a layoff notice on July 7th, the timeline to respond to that notice has been extended to Thursday, July 17th at 5pm. People who have already responded will have one more opportunity to change their response; we wanted to ensure that if the Letter of Agreement or bumping within the district changed someone’s decision, they still had time to act on it.
• The Geographic Areas for bumping have been updated to Maintenance Districts to avoid workers needing to move long distances for new positions. This includes non-maintenance staff. If there is no position to bump into within the district, then the current contract language will be used, and your geographic area will be your region. This change addresses concerns we heard about people being forced to relocate far from home through the bumping process.
• ODOT employees who receive final confirmation of layoff can utilize any combination of vacation, compensatory time, compensatory straight time or personal business to reach eighty (80) hours of paid time during the month of August so that they can meet PEBB requirements to maintain healthcare coverage through September.
  • Workers that do not have a combined 80 hours of vacation, compensatory time, compensatory straight time or personal business can request donated leave for this purpose. This gives all laid off workers a pathway to maintain their health insurance through September.
• Workers who received layoff notices can use work time to update their resume, attend agency sponsored informational meetings, rapid response sessions and to talk to recruiters about potential job opportunities.
• ODOT employees who currently live in ODOT housing and have final confirmation of layoff may remain in that housing through the end of the calendar year pursuant to the ODOT Housing Manual. If they are bumped and the person who bumped them requires housing, a written notice will be provided at least 30 days before the rental agreement is terminated.
• Some workers whose worksite changes as a result of the layoff process will qualify for relocation expenses.

7/7

Today we passed a proposal to the Department of Administrative Services and ODOT to mitigate the impacts of the proposed layoffs on SEIU represented workers. 

Specifically, our proposal includes several concepts that we believe could delay the implementation of the layoff, protect people's health care, provide resources and leave time for impacted workers to access resources, language to address the process if the transportation package is funded in a special session, and much more. We do not know what management’s response will be, but we plan to pursue every possible avenue to save as many ODOT jobs as possible. This fight is not over.  

We also know that there has been a lot of information coming out this week about the proposed layoffs at ODOT. We are committed to sharing everything that we hear about the situation as quickly as possible. ODOT is still waiting for the Department of Administrative Services to approve their layoff list. Information that is available to workers right now about who is being laid off is potentially inaccurate. 

We are continuing to push ODOT to organize meetings to give workers information. It is absolutely vital that space is created for workers to get information they can trust and to be able to ask questions. We will continue to remind ODOT of the importance of this.

7/1

In this time of uncertainty, we are committed to keeping you updated about layoffs as more information becomes available. 

ODOT has informed us that layoff notices are now expected to go out on Tuesday, July 8th. From the date of your notice, you will have 7 days to respond and make decisions about your layoff options. 

Notices are being delayed because ODOT is still verifying seniority data for represented staff, which requires them to manually review some information to ensure accuracy and minimize errors.

Management staff that are being laid off may receive earlier notification than represented staff; that is because ODOT does not need to verify seniority information since management does not have layoff rights and cannot bump. Their list requires less verification. Previously, management had some ability to bump into represented positions. That is something we were able to change in Department of Administrative Services (DAS) policy to assure more protection for represented workers.

ODOT has confirmed that some maintenance shops will be closed, yet they have not identified which ones. Workers at those locations will be able to exercise their seniority rights under the layoff process, which will likely result in bumping across job classes and locations. It’s unclear how many positions will ultimately be eliminated or how widespread the impact will be. 

We continue working with ODOT and the DAS to explore all possible alternatives to cutting positions and will share updates as soon as we have them. Today we met with DAS to share ideas to save positions and limit the need for layoffs.

We know this is an incredibly difficult time. Please continue to reach out to your steward or Union with your questions and concerns. We’re in this together, and we will keep fighting to protect jobs and support every member through this process.  

Identify yourself:

• First and Last Name
• Worksite (region and location)
• Do you know how many lane miles you cover?
• Job title

Describe to legislators what the impact of these layoffs is. Consider touching on the following points:

• What does being laid-off mean for you and your family?
• What does your day-to-day look like?
• Why is your job important to the public?
• How will these layoffs affect the public?
• Do you have a story that you can share related to your work?
• What support does ODOT provide during wildfires, snowstorms, otherextreme weather events, closures, etc.?
• What would you like to say to the legislature?

You can take your own video and send it to your legislator using the link above to find their email address, or use the link above to record a video directly on our website and we will deliver it for you. You can also work with your field organizer to help record the video and get it sent. If you send it yourself, please copy Anthony Castaneda at castanedaa@seiu503.org in the email.