Oregon Union Facts

Total Reported Union Members	308,965
Assets	$ 135,564,983
Receipts	$ 118,374,250
Disbursements	$ 116,414,937

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Percentage of Workforce Unionized in 2005

Non-Unionized  Unionized

86%  15%

Historical Percentage of Workforce Unionized

Government Employee Unions
Each year, public sector unions cost Oregon residents millions of dollars by driving state budgets well beyond responsible spending.

Government Employees	182,390
Percent Unionized	48.9 %
Average Government Employee Salary	$ 42,560

Government Employee Union Tax: 19.94%
Oregon residents could pay 19.94% less in state income taxes if they weren't paying for inflated government employee union wages.

Average Government Salary vs. Inflation

Thanks to lobbying by government employee union bosses and the contracts they hammer out, Oregon’s public employees often work under conditions that most private-sector taxpayers would envy. Typical employment includes:

• 12-26 days of vacation, based on seniority
• 8 hours of sick leave per month
• Up to 18 hours of personal leave each year
• Nine paid holidays
• Benefit dollars to spend on medical and dental insurance, and life insurance for employee and/or dependents
• Membership in the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS)

Oregon’s Troubled PERS System
The Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) has long been one of Oregon’s economic and political nightmares, straining the state’s budgets to make rich payments to public employee retirees. Some facts about PERS, from a Replacement Ratio Study undertaken by the agency in 2005:

• Nearly 200 retirees received a retirement benefit totaling more than $100,000 annually.
• More than 15 percent of those retiring from 2000-2003 received more than 100 percent of their final average salary in annual benefits at the time of retirement.
• The average retirement age was 57.46 years, with 22.48 years being the average length of service.
• The unfunded actuarial liability (the amount of tax money the retirement system would need to pay its long-term obligations) was calculated at $1.7 billion as of December 31, 2003.

Lobbying Their Own Employers
Public sector union officials are unique in that they can spend money directly lobbying their members’ bosses. Financial records show that powerful public employee unions do just that in Oregon, where they have collectively spent millions of dollars in lobbying expenditures -- money that originally came from the taxpayers, now stuck with the bill for the increased costs of public sector union labor.

Leading Oregon Public Union Lobbying Disbursements, 2000-2005:

2005 Lobbying Notes
In 2005, SEIU Local 503 spent $289,655 to become the second-highest spender on lobbying among non-governmental entities. The Oregon Education Association wasn’t far behind, spending $252,744 to lead lobbying by education unions. The Oregon School Employees Association dropped $86,300 and AFT-Oregon kicked in $46,258. In addition, the Oregon PERS Retirees PAC spent $25,200 on lobbying (while the Public Employees Retirement System itself spent less than one-fifth that amount at only $4,302).

Right To Work
Oregon is not a 'right to work' state. Employees in a unionized company can be forced to pay "agency fees" to the union, even if they refuse to be union members.