Archives West Finding Aid

Materials in Series 1. Collective Bargaining materials are divided into two sub-series: 1.1 Right to Organize campaign and Employee Free Choice Act materials; and 1.2 Collective bargaining and labor campaigns. Materials primarily document organizing campaigns and strikes, and frequently include Workers' Rights Board hearings and reports, and letters from the faith community. Both sub-series include press releases, talking points, letters of support, informational packets, flyers, notes, and agendas, among other materials, as well as information compiled from other sources such as news clippings and research materials. Sub-series 1.1 is organized in rough chronological order. Sub-series 1.2 is organized alphabetically by the name of the company or campaign, and a small amount of material is in Spanish.

Series 2 documents the activities of the Workers' Rights Board (henceforth WRB), a project started in 1999 by Jobs with Justice and composed of community, legal, political, faith, and academic leaders. WRB provides a public forum in which workers can bring complaints against employers for violating their rights. Materials are focused on WRB committee activities and include committee notes and agendas, annual meeting materials, and hearing reports. Materials are organized roughly by year and grouped by topic. Note that most Workers' Rights Board hearings and reports are included in Series 1 with the individual campaign files that can be found under employer names in sub-series 1.2.

Series 3. Faith Labor committee materials document the work of a committee created in 2003 to connect members of the Portland labor and faith communities for greater effectiveness. The series includes two sub-series: 3.1 Faith Labor Annual Breakfast materials; and 3.2 Faith Labor committee and workshop materials. Materials vary by type and span between the two sub-series to include invitation letters, agendas, programs, notes, talking points, attendee lists, planning documents, news clippings, research material, flyers and handouts, Faith and Labor newsletter, workshop and training materials, and a small number of photos. Arranged in chronological order, there are a wider variety of materials for later years than earlier years.

Series 4. Sustainable economics campaigns is divided into three sub-series: 4.1, Living wage, minimum wage, and tax justice campaigns; 4.2, Economic crisis and bailout campaigns; and 4.3, Portland Rising materials. Sub-series 4.1 contains a familiar variety of materials documenting lobbying and campaign activites as well as correspondence and press releases for minimum and living wage and tax justice advocacy campaigns; one folder contains correspondence from the office of activist Michael Moore. Sub-series 4.2 contains flyers, planning documents, participant guides and press material for town hall, rally, and direct action campaigns opposing corporate bailouts after the Great Recession. Sub-series 4.3 contains early planning and press material documenting Portland Rising, a committee Jobs with Justice formed in 2011 that focuses on labor issues and employment improvement. Note there are also audiovisual materials documenting Portland Rising in Series 11 of this collection.

Series 5. Global justice campaign materials is divided into four sub-series: 5.1, Trade agreements; 5.2, Anti-sweatshop work; 5.3, Nike campaign; 5.4, Other global justice campaigns. Each series contains a mix of document types reflecting these campaigns, including but not limited to press releases, flyers announcing rallies, fact sheets, talking points, news clippings, memos, agendas, planning documents, reports, resolutions, and photographs.

Series 6. Health care campaign materials is further divided into three sub-series: Sub-series 6.1, Actions before single payer; Sub-series 6.2, Single payer healthcare campaign; and Sub-series 6.3, Health care committee materials. Sub-series 6.1 is brief and documents actions and rallies in held in Oregon and nationally prior to the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010. Sub-series 6.2 contains primarily Oregon campaign materials and information in support of single payer health care leading up to and after the passage of the ACA. Sub-series 6.3 consists of more general health care committee documents such as meeting agendas and notes, presentations, and legislative information. All three sub-series are arranged in rough chronological order.

Series 7. Immigrant rights campaign materials is divided into six sub-series. Sub-series 7.1, Campaign actions documents a variety of actions such as marches, walks, and freedom rides, opposition to raids including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after 2011, and Safe Communities trainings and press materials. Sub-series 7.2, Coalition work documents JwJ work with the Portland Immigrant Rights coalition and several other local and state coalition groups in support of immigrant rights. Sub-series 7.3, Public forums and trainings documents internal and community-facing education activity related to immigration. Sub-series 7.4, Immigration Committee materials contains the work of the JwJ committee, such as meeting minutes, agendas, and committee packets. Sub-series 7.5, May Day actions documents fourteen years of May Day marches with plans, speeches, news clippings, and notes. Sub-series 7.6, Press clippings contains news clippings documenting related actions and bills.

Series 8. Other campaigns covers a variety of campaigns and actions worked on by JwJ but not otherwise covered in previous series. Issues include political donations, police accountability, affordable housing, and Social Security. Arranged by topic in chronological order.

Series 9, Administrative records, is the largest grouping of materials in the collection and contains significant documentation of core Jobs with Justice activities and concerns. Adminstrative records are further divided into thirteen sub-series, each of which are arranged roughly by year and/or topic. Sub-series 9.1, Executive Committee packets, includes executive meeting agendas, director and other staff reports, notes, correspondence, proposals, plans, budget information, and research materials, all reflecting the organization's activities for each year. Sub-series 9.2, Steering Committee materials, is also organized by year and offers rich information on the major actions, workers rights campaigns, and other efforts of Portland Jobs with Justice; materials mainly include meeting agendas, minutes, notes, and organizer reports, as well as proposals and planning documents. Sub-series 9.3, Action mobilization and fundraising phone trees, contains guides for phone stewards and scripts for house call conversations, while the contents of Sub-series 9.4, Budgets and financial reporting, are self-evident from the sub-series title. Sub-series 9.5, Fundraising, contains mostly planning documents for fundraising events. Sub-series 9.6, Bylaws and guiding documents, is a small sub-series holding a few governing documents. The title of sub-series 9.7, Anti-racism training materials, explains its contents; it should be noted that additional anti-racist training materials can be found elsewhere in this series among executive and steering committee packets. Subseries 9.8, Strategic planning and campaign tracking, documents annual retreats and provides evidence of JwJ both assessing each previous year's accomplishments and planning for the future; campaign tracking documents in this sub-series include campaigns engaged in, won, lost, and pending, as well as the number of workers affected. Sub-series 9.9, Member organizations and outreach, is primarily lists of members and reports for the membership, plus outreach materials; a few scattered issues of the newsletter Direct Action are present but others occur periodically throughout the collection. Sub-series 9.10, Alliance building, conflicts, and AFL relationship materials, documents capacity building and conflict resolution efforts, including a small amount of materials on a controversial flag burning incident in 2002 and JwJ's relationship with the AFL-CIO. Sub-series 9.11, Staff and intern roles contains job descriptions, work plans, and internship programs. Sub-series 9.12, Labor Education and Research Center training materials, consists of several specialized trainings on labor topics, many of which were taught by Portland JwJ executive director Margaret Butler and other JwJ staff and affiliates; the Labor Education and Research Center (LERC) is a program of the University of Oregon and invites labor leaders and professionals to teach strategic planning and leadership development among other topics. Finally, sub-series 9.13, Miscellaneous administrative materials, includes an early history of Portland JwJ.

Series 10. National Jobs with Justice materials consists of six subseries. Sub-series 10.1, Training materials, reflects a variety of staff trainings held across the nation, which may provide useful contextual information for researchers. Sub-series 10.2, Organizing documents, contains personnel policies, bylaws, and early newsletters. Sub-series 10.3, National planning committee and board meeting materials, includes planning documents, memos, agendas, notes, correspondence, reports, and financial information. Sub-series 10.4, Annual meeting materials, contains agendas, presentations, talking points both from an attendee and speaker, organizer point of view as well as materials from more specific committees. Sub-series 10.5, National Workers' Rights Board materials, focuses on the early program from 2001 and include agendas and notes for hearings as well as planning and comittee documents. Sub-series 10.6, Miscellaneous materials, includes other national organization materials not found in other sub-series and includes fact sheets and information on topics such as global justice and health care as well as tracking reports for local JwJ organizations.

Series 11, Photographs, audiovisual materials, and computer files, is organized chronologically and contains a wide variety of digital files on CD-ROM and DVD-R disks. Included are photographs, videos, and office files documenting various events, workshops, campaigns and actions, most of which are reflected in textual materials elsewhere in this collection. The economic crisis and anti-bailout demonstrations circa 2008-2009 and Portland Rising actions in 2011 are highlighted.