The staff of the Portland-based homeless nonprofit Do Good Multnomah are pushing for membership in Oregon AFSCME.
About 75 percent of Do Good Multnomah’s 270 employees have signed union cards, said union supporter Davis Nafshun, a case manager at a homeless shelter in Portland’s Old Town. On Aug. 7, employees asked the nonprofit’s managers to voluntarily recognize their union.
“We are confident that we can win if there are elections,” Nafshun said.
According to Nafshun, workers are demanding higher wages, increased staffing and mental health support.
“It’s extremely rewarding,” he said. “The problem is that it’s a very emotional field. It just emotionally exhausts people.”
Do Good Multnomah has contracts with Multnomah County to operate homeless shelters, public housing and mental health counseling. The nonprofit operates the county’s largest motel shelter, the 110-room Rodeway Inn in Northeast Portland. And its flagship shelter in the former Greyhound station in Old Town has a 90-bed capacity.
Nafshun said the starting wage for a case manager or homeless shelter worker is $25.51 an hour. Workers are entitled to seven hours of paid vacation every two weeks, but the employer does not contribute anything toward retirement. The downtown homeless shelter, which has no air conditioning, is also the subject of an OSHA complaint about extreme heat.
Oregon AFSCME already represents similar workers at Transition Projects, Central City Concern, Home Forward and Lines for Life, which operates the 988 mental health crisis hotline.
