The 2019 legislative session came to a close on June 30th. Our work over the last election cycle supporting candidates who support workers resulted in a pro-union governor and a pro-worker supermajority in the House and Senate. When session began in January, SEIU 503 laid out an ambitious agenda at the Oregon State Capitol, including the Care Agenda, which was our big push to improve Oregon’s homecare system for workers and consumers.

We didn’t accomplish everything we wanted, but 2019 was a year of historic wins for our Union, our state, and, especially, care providers. We were able to secure $20 million in the salary pot for care providers, which is double what we had last budget! This places us in a strong position to win contracts that will improve wages and benefits for tens of thousands of Oregon families.

The highlight of the legislative session came on the final day with the passage of SB 669, the top priority in the Care Agenda. SB 669 will apply the same training standards and oversight to private and publicly funded in-home care providers statewide. This is huge! Your advocacy also resulted in key wins on background checks for care providers with the adoption of SB 725.

If you’d like to help strengthen our voice at the legislature, please click here to make a contribution to Citizen Action for Political Education (CAPE).

Highlights from the 2019 legislative session include:

• Money for strong contracts
• Funding for key services
• Passing a statewide bill that hold private agency homecare to standards our homecare workers are held to
• Paid Family and Medical Leave
• Strong housing protections

Click here to read more about our long list of accomplishments at the Legislature this session.