The state of Oregon and the city of Portland may be gearing up to give hundreds of millions of dollars of public money to help finance renovations to the 31-year-old Moda Center—and organized labor wants something in return.
“About a year ago, we had outreach from workers at the Moda Center in a number of different job categories there,” Mark Davison, president of Teamsters Joint Council 37, said. “So we’ve been in communication with workers there who want to organize a union.”
Workers at the Moda Center, with the exception of a handful of engineers, are not unionized. That, Davison said, is atypical—particularly in states like Oregon without right-to-work laws.
The Teamsters have union contracts at Lumen Field and Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Oracle Park in San Francisco, and Ball Arena in Denver, while other unions, like the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Union, have a number of stadium contracts as well. But neither of those unions have a foothold at the Moda Center.
“I was really in shock that a city that prides itself on being progressive… we’ve had an arena there for 32 years and all of those major jobs, the major chunk of workers in parking, and tickets and concessions and shipping and receiving and logistics are not unionized,” Davison said. “That really struck me.”
The Teamsters have engaged in conversations with workers at the arena over the last year, including prior to the discussions about public funding for the arena. Now, however, Davison said the union sees a unique opportunity to push for organizing the Moda Center.
“If there’s going to be public money put into the stadium, the unions need to have a seat at the table—the Teamsters and any other unions that want to come along for the ride,” Davison said.
Food and beverage service workers at the arena have raised concerns about their working conditions in recent years, but Davison said that, as far as he’s aware, Moda Center workers’ interest in union representation is driven by general concerns.
“It’s bread and butter issues: it’s wages, it’s benefits, it’s job security,” he said.
As a result, as discussions over public funding advance, the Teamsters are pushing for a labor peace agreement with the Blazers’ incoming ownership group led by Tom Dundon—a businessman whose net worth is estimated at more than $2 billion.
Labor peace agreements, or neutrality agreements, are contracts between employers and unions that commit employers to remain neutral during union organizing campaigns and not suggest to workers that they oppose their organizing. Unions, in exchange, often commit to refraining from striking, picketing, or otherwise disrupting their employer’s business operations.
As part of neutrality agreements, employers typically commit to voluntarily recognizing the union once a majority of employees sign authorization cards rather than forcing the union to win recognition via an election administered by the National Labor Relations Board.
Neutrality agreements, which are relatively common, tend to benefit unions by preventing employers from engaging in a variety of union-busting tactics like the ones Davison said Columbia Sportswear used to beat back a Teamsters-led unionization push at a Portland warehouse just prior to the outbreak of COVID-19.
“Statistically speaking—and you’ll hear a lot about it from pro-labor groups—if workers are allowed in a neutral fashion to organize, without fear, a supermajority of workers want to be represented by a union,” Davison said.
In stadiums, particularly, unions have had success organizing with neutrality agreements in place. Davison and others have pointed to the neutrality agreement in place at Lumen Field as a potential model for the Moda Center.
Now, the Teamsters are working to make sure political allies are aware of their position. Davison said he’s met with Councilor Mitch Green to lay out his views on the labor situation at the Moda Center and the importance of neutrality agreements. Green told the Mercury he fully supports facilitating a labor peace agreement as part of any public financing of arena renovations.
“I do think it’s an absolute bare minimum necessity to negotiate in a lease agreement or any other kind of contract that we get neutrality or peace agreements in there,” Green said.
Roger Noll, an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University who has studied the stadium deals, said the deals never favor the economic interests of the public—but that governments can and should negotiate for conditions in the public’s interest.
“There’s going to be a negotiation… about what the details of the obligations of the two parties and the benefits accruing to the two parties are going to be,” Noll said. “Whether it’s a moderately bad deal or a terrible deal for the community depends on those details.”
At this point, the details of a potential deal still remain somewhat unclear—and as the cty of Portland and Multnomah County consider their options, Dundon’s business record has come under scrutiny: OPB and ProPublica reported earlier this month that the incoming Blazers owner was a key figure at a company the state accused of predatory lending in 2013.
Davison, for his part, said he wants to see the city consult the public as it determines whether and how to dedicate money to a Moda Center renovation project.
He also said that while his feelings about a potential deal will depend on its details, he doesn’t appreciate any implicit suggestion that the Blazers might relocate if they don’t get public money for the arena project.
“I don’t start negotiations out with, ‘If you don’t do this, we’re leaving,’” Davison said. “That doesn’t work for the Teamsters, and that should not work for the city. That’s not how you bargain.”
