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<\/p>\nHundreds gather in Seaside for union rally<\/p>\n
Published 10:28 am Sunday, September 7, 2025<\/p>\n
\u00a0Demonstrators urge \u201cStop the Billionaire Takeover\u201d<\/p>\n
Over 200 union members and workers spilled out onto the sidewalks of Seaside Saturday for a rally for an \u201cOregon Labor Takes on the Billionaire Takeover\u201d rally.<\/p>\n
The union members left the Seaside Convention Center, where moments before the Oregon AFL-CIO concluded its biennial convention, and marched carrying signs and shouting slogans of \u201cWorkers over billionaires\u201d to the Lewis and Clark Monument on the Promenade.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The convention itself was closed to the public and media was not permitted inside.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur democracy and our labor movement is at a crossroads, the only way out of this situation is to come together, to fight the billionaire class as a unified front,\u201d shouted Graham Trainor, Oregon AFL-CIO president, into a microphone. \u201cIt is time to unite, to fight, and to stop the billionaire takeover \u2026 of our federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Oregon AFL-CIO President Graham Trainor speaks in Seaside. Photo by Mathias Lehman-Winters<\/p>\n
Nina Sparr, an employee of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, said she had driven to the convention from Portland.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince January we\u2019ve been under attack more, so I\u2019ve been more active,\u201d Sparr said. \u201cI\u2019m one of the agencies where they\u2019ve took our bargaining agreement away, so we still have a union but we don\u2019t have protection.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sparr said she believes unions protect workers, and that they are under threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople that do regular jobs need greater protections, and need help, because it\u2019s pretty bad,\u201d Sparr said. \u201cThe federal unions are first, and I don\u2019t know what will happen if that (goes away).\u201d<\/p>\n
Linda Jauron-Mills, a retiree of the Amalgamated Transit Union, had driven to Seaside from Scappoose.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have nurses, we have firefighters, the trade unionists are here\u2026and we are focusing on things that matter to working people so that they don\u2019t get messed up in the whole disaster that is coming,\u201d Jauron-Mills said. \u201cWe are fighting for the working people of Oregon.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Union members rally at the Lewis and Clark Monument in Seaside.<\/p>\n
Union members were led in a song of \u201cSolidarity Forever\u201d and waved signs that read, \u201cHands Off Workers Rights,\u201d and \u201cStop the Billionaire Takeover.\u201d<\/p>\n
SEIU Local 503 President Johnny Earl speaking to the crowd said it is imperative that labor stays engaged with politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we are all one\u2026 this union is going to fight like hell\u00a0 to make sure we win the next midterm election,\u201d Earl said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds gather in Seaside for union rally Published 10:28 am Sunday, September 7, 2025 By MATHIAS LEHMAN-WINTERS \u00a0Demonstrators…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,2564,22385,87158,452,453,15557],"class_list":["post-139910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-protests","tag-rally","tag-seaside","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-union"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}