BerniePDX / Portland for Bernie

“Officials from the United States, Israel, Qatar, and Hamas say a deal to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages has been reached.This is welcome, long-overdue news.

Both sides must honor the deal and implement it as quickly as possible. The senseless killing must stop. The hostages must be released. The United Nations and other aid organizations must finally be allowed unfettered access to all areas of the Gaza Strip in order to provide the massive amounts of humanitarian aid that is desperately needed. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people are struggling to survive, lacking food, water, and medical care in the middle of winter. Innocent lives hang in the balance.” Read more of Bernie’s statement here.

Sign up to join a picket, sign the petition to Providence, and support the strike fund here! 

Nearly 5,000 healthcare professionals at the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) are calling on Providence Health & Services to return to the bargaining table and put their patients before profits by offering a fair contract to frontline caregivers. Nurses, doctors, physician associates, certified nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, clinical staff, and other healthcare professionals are striking Providence beginning Jan. 10.

ONA members are holding this historic and courageous strike because of Providence’s unfair labor practices, dangerously understaffed hospitals, the need for more time with patients, affordable employee healthcare, and competitive wages and benefits to help recruit and retain more caregivers.

Join the picket lines and stand in solidarity with healthcare workers fighting for better care for their patients and a stronger future for caregivers!

“We are the wealthiest nation on Earth. There is no rational reason as to why we are not the healthiest nation on Earth. We should be leading the world in terms of life expectancy, disease prevention, low infant and maternal mortality, quality of life and human happiness. Sadly, study after study shows just the opposite. Despite spending almost twice as much per capita on healthcare, we trail most wealthy nations in all these areas.

If we’re going to reform our broken and dysfunctional healthcare system and ‘Make America healthy again’, this is some of what we must do.” Read more here.

Join the picket line at 1250 NW Swigert Way in Troutdale!

“All health care systems require administration, which costs money, but a private multipayer system requires massively more than other approaches, especially the single-payer system favored by the American left.

To get your head around why this is, think for a second about what happens to every $100 you give to a private insurance company. According to the most exhaustive study on this question in the United States — the Congressional Budget Office single-payer study from 2020 — the first thing that happens is that $16 of those dollars are taken by the insurance company. From there, the insurer gives the remaining $84 to a hospital to reimburse them for services. That hospital then takes another $15.96 (19 percent of its revenue) for administration, meaning that only $68.04 of the original $100 actually goes to providing care.

In a single-payer system, the path of that $100 looks a lot different. Rather than take $16 for insurance administration, the public insurer would only take $1.60. And rather than take $15.96 of the remaining money for hospital administration, the hospital would only take $11.80 (12 percent of its revenue), meaning that $86.60 of the original $100 actually goes to providing care.” Read more here.

Please click here to send a message to all the Metro Councilors urging them Say No to Cutting $17.5 million for building affordable housing and ending homelessness and housing insecurity!

Metro Council is poised to vote on a ballot measure to adjust the Supportive Services Measure passed in 2020 to assist households experiencing homelessness or severe rent burdens.

We support changes improving cross-county alignment of strategies for alleviating our affordable housing crisis; investing a portion of funds to expand permanently affordable housing; and extending revenue collection beyond 10 years.

However, these changes will not succeed in alleviating our crisis if Metro follows through on a 10% tax cut on earnings above 125 K for single households and above 200K for joint filing households in 2026, followed by a 25% cut in 2031.It is predicted that such a deep tax cut will lead to a $17.5 million annual loss in revenue!

Learn more about this issue on Welcome Home’s website.

The New Seasons Labor Union is calling for a customer boycott of all locations for the rest of the holiday season. Please uphold the boycott to support their contract negotiation efforts!

Jamie Dunphy’s win for Portland City Council, District 1 hasn’t been called yet because the margins are so close, and some ballot signatures in D1 don’t match up. That means the campaign has to contact thousands of voters over the next few days to get them to fix their ballots!

Please sign up to canvass, text, or make calls, and donate here, to help the campaign reach these critical voters.

Not only was Jamie endorsed by Bernie PDX, he was also one of the few candidates who signed Portland DSA’s Renters Bill of Rights pledge!

Jamie’s win will solidify the most progressive City Council in Portland history – let’s ensure he reaches the finish line!

ACTION ITEM #1: Fill out this short survey with your name, email, and click the “support” button for putting big corporations on the hook for their negligence through this ordinance. 

Then cut and paste this comment, or something like it, into the survey’s space for feedback:
I support a strong, enforceable risk bond ordinance that includes a penalty of $25,000/day for non-compliance, applicable to all facilities regulated by the DEQ Fuel Tank Seismic Stability program and going into effect within 2 years.

ACTION ITEM #2: Show up in red at 11:00am on Thursday, Nov. 21 to watch the Multnomah County Commissioners discuss the ordinance at the County building on 501 SE Hawthorne!

Background: Time to demand that polluters pay up front for damages, clean up and putting our lives & environment in danger!  Zenith and cronies must take steps to prevent huge oil spills, fires and deadly toxic fumes from fossil fuels and other toxic chemicals being released from old tanks on the riverfront – given the odds of a big earthquake, forest fire or train derailment.