Retail and food workers at Portland International Airport criticize pay, benefits.
BY JACOB PALMER | OB DIGITAL NEWS EDITOR
Retail and food workers at Portland International Airport criticize pay, benefits.
The push for a livable wage comes as state lawmakers prepare to discuss minimum wage in the upcoming session.
From OregonLive.com:
The union issued a survey of more than 100 food and retail employees, ahead of the port commission’s monthly meeting Wednesday. It found PDX concessions workers earn up to $1.49 less an hour, on average, than their counterparts statewide.
The low wages may be at least partly tied to high turnover rates. Forty percent of workers surveyed had been on the job for six months or fewer, according to the survey.
Tuesday was rife with unrest — as seen on a relatively small scope at the Uber demonstration.
Don’t Shoot PDX, a group that has mostly demonstrated against police brutality, shut down the Portland Public Schools board meeting to protest the schools’ handling of diversity issues.
The school board had been scheduled to vote on the second reading of a transfer policy that would make switching a child to a school outside his neighborhood more of a petition system than a lottery. The recommendations had been developed over the last two years by the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee on Enrollment and Transfer (SACET) aimed in large part at improving racial equity.
“In recognition of the pervasive achievement and opportunity gaps, we have applied the Racial Equity Lens throughout our discussions,” wrote Superintendent Carol Smith in her October proposal to the school board. “We studied policies, programs, practices and decisions and asked if they ignored or worsened existing disparities, destabilized the system as a whole, or produced other unintended consequences. It is clear that enrollment and transfer policies and practices have differing repercussions depending on racial group.”
Read more at the Portland Tribune.
