Hundreds of Portland city workers walk out as contract talks collapse

More than 800 City of Portland employees remained off the job Wednesday, as an open-ended strike by the City of Portland Professional Workers union, known as CPPW, stretched into its third day with no new bargaining session scheduled. The walkout began just after midnight on Monday, Nov. 9, hours after a marathon mediation session broke down without a deal, according to a city statement issued that evening and separate reporting from Oregon Public Broadcasting and KPTV.

CPPW represents roughly 800 of the city's 7,500 employees, according to the city's own bargaining page, which also confirms that the union's first contract was ratified June 18, 2025, and runs through the end of 2027. The current fight is over a scheduled "reopener" covering wages, layoff and recall rights, standby pay and hours of work — not a brand-new contract. Members include financial and data analysts, emergency-management staff, technology workers, communications employees and administrative aides spread across nearly every city bureau.

What the two sides are fighting over

The dispute centers on cost-of-living pay. According to the city's Nov. 6 bargaining update, Portland's offer includes a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment retroactive to July 1, 2026, a $1,000 one-time bonus, a projected cost-of-living increase of roughly 3.6 percent in July 2027, and a $350 annual safety-gear allowance for eligible staff — a package the city says amounts to an 11 percent cumulative base-wage increase since June 2025. CPPW's counteroffer keeps the same cost-of-living adjustments but adds further base-wage increases and longevity pay, which the city calculates would total a 21 percent cumulative increase over the same period, per the city's Nov. 6 release.

By the city's accounting, its own proposal would cost about $15 million over the life of the agreement, while CPPW's proposal would run upward of $25 million — a roughly $10 million gap. The city also points to its 2025 compensation study, which found CPPW's salary ranges already run 9.8 percent above market minimums and nearly 14 percent above market maximums. CPPW leaders argue that an earlier $20 million figure cited by the city included roughly 100 vacant positions and jobs eliminated in the latest budget, and that the real gap is closer to $9 million, according to OPB's reporting.

• Roughly 800 CPPW members are on strike, about 10 percent of the city's workforce.
• Members voted 93 percent to authorize the strike after nearly a year of negotiations.
• The city estimates its own wage offer at about $15 million over the contract term; the union's at upward of $25 million.
• No new mediation session was confirmed as of Sunday night, the eve of the walkout.

Who is affected

CPPW leaders say the strike touches work that is largely invisible to the public but still essential, including payroll processing, budget and financial analysis, and coordination that supports police, fire and 911 operations. "We call ourselves the glue that holds the city together," union president Kari Koch said, according to KPTV's reporting. City spokesperson Alison Perkins said Portland has contingency plans to keep "critical public safety, infrastructure and other services" running during the walkout.

"Nobody wants to strike. It is a tool of last resort," Koch said, adding that the city has continued to "bargain with us in bad faith."

Perkins, in turn, said "a significant gap remains between the parties' proposals," pointing to the cost of the wage increases and their effect on future budgets. Neither side has publicly estimated how long the strike might last.

Part of a broader pattern at city hall

CPPW's walkout is the latest in a string of Portland municipal labor disputes this year. In October, two other bargaining units — PROTEC17, representing nearly 1,000 workers, and firefighters' union PFFA Local 43 — each reached tentative agreements with the city without striking, according to the city's labor-relations news log. But Portland City Laborers, part of LiUNA Local 483 and representing about 750 maintenance and operations workers, declared an impasse in late October and submitted final offers to the state, starting its own 30-day cooling-off period; that union could strike as soon as next month if talks there also fail.

Oregon's public-sector labor law, administered by the Employment Relations Board, allows most city bargaining units — including CPPW — to strike after a 30-day cooling-off period and at least 10 days' written notice, rather than routing disputes to binding arbitration, which applies only to police- and fire-related units.

What happens next

As of Sunday night, neither the city nor CPPW had confirmed a date for further mediation, though an earlier KPTV report cited a tentative meeting later in the week. Koch has said picketing will continue at City Hall and other sites "in the meantime." The city says it remains "committed to reaching an agreement with CPPW" and to a resolution that is "fair to employees, sustainable for the City, and responsible to taxpayers." With the Portland City Laborers dispute still unresolved and a possible second strike looming next month, the outcome of the CPPW negotiations could shape how the city approaches that larger, separate bargaining unit as well.