Hundreds of educators, parents and students joined a rally Nov. 1. 2023 at Roosevelt High School in north Portland. A new bill would extend unemployment benefits to them during work stoppages. (Alex Baumhardt/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

The legislation would be the most expansive set of unemployment strike benefits passed in the nation, covering public and private employees who walk off the job in protest.

Oregon could soon become the first state in the nation to extend unemployment benefits to striking workers.

House lawmakers passed Senate Bill 916 Wednesday in a 33-23 vote along party lines with one dissenting Democrat, a decision that followed an hours-long debate about the bill’s impact on schools, health care, and private businesses. The bill already cleared the Senate in May in a 16-12 vote, but will need to go back to that chamber before the month’s end for a re-vote to clear further amendments.

The legislation would allow striking workers — including most public employees — to collect unemployment benefits after their first two weeks of striking and up until the eight week of a strike, pending the financial stability of the state’s unemployment fund. Several other states, including Washington, New Jersey, and New York, extend unemployment benefits and payments to striking private sector workers, but not to public employees.

If unemployment funding is available, striking workers could collect benefits for up to 26 weeks. Payments range from $196 to a maximum of $836 weekly, according to a 2024 policy from the Oregon Employment Department.

After the House voted down a scaled-back proposal by Republicans Wednesday morning, lawmakers debated the extent to which Senate Bill 916 would lengthen or shorten strikes, and the potential strain it could impose on schools and private business.

“SB 916 won’t encourage strikes — it will shorten them,” state Rep. Travis Nelson, D-Portland, wrote in an emailed statement Wednesday. “It will bring employers to the table faster, and let workers stand up without having to worry that their families will starve should they choose to exercise their right to strike. Fundamentally, this legislation is about dignity and fairness for workers.”

Republicans, led by state Rep. Lucetta Elmer, R-McMinnville, sought to derail the proposal with their own measure that also would’ve capped benefits to six weeks of payments after the first two weeks of a strike.

“We can have the conversation about making sure that employees are paid well and they are protected and their voices heard,” Elmer said. “This bill isn’t the way — this is too much and too far.”

Prior to the vote, opposition to the measure was piling up in testimony from school board leaders and business groups concerned the bill could allow strikes to drag on and put a wrench in day-to-day operations.

Leaders of teacher unions and the Congress of Industrial Organizations, a statewide coalition of unions that represents over 300,000 workers, have testified in support of the bill, as have nurses, teachers and state workers.

“Regardless of income level or industry, Oregon workers all want the same things — to work hard, support themselves, and build a better life,” the Oregon AFL-CIO said in a social media post prior to the vote. “Senate Bill 916 is an opportunity for our state to support working class Oregonians by strengthening their right to strike through expanding unemployment benefit access.”

The Oregon Employment Department told the Legislature in April that the bill wouldn’t result in any changes to unemployment taxes paid by employers.

The bill was amended in the House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards in May to allow school districts to deduct the cost of benefits from backpay some teachers receive after a strike has ended, under union contracts.

Multiple Democrats reiterated their argument following the vote that the bill would not raise costs for businesses and schools.

“I also firmly believe that this policy will help our businesses, education and healthcare communities by bringing these strikes to a close sooner and with greater certainty,” said state Rep. Dacia Grayber, D-Portland, in closing the discussion on the House floor.

If the bill clears its revote in the Senate, it will head to Gov. Tina Kotek’s desk for final consideration.