Archives

June 30, 2014 - Oregon union hit by today’s Supreme Court ruling

By Oregon Small Business Association The Supreme Court made a ruling that will have a big impact on unions — including Oregon. Today the Court ruled that an Illinois health care union could not force in-home health care workers to pay fees for the union’s collective bargaining costs. Oregon and […]


June 27, 2014 - Chart: US beats world in sports attendance

Patrick Emerson PhD , OSU Economist Oregon Economics Blog Once again The Economist comes through with a fun chart: Note the MLS is the sixth highest average attendance soccer league in the world.  I would, however, argue that this should be normalized by population to make a rank comparison. Oh […]


June 26, 2014 - Supreme Court affirms employee free speech rights

By Bullard Law, Portland law firm On June 19, 2014, in Lane v Franks, the United States Supreme Court unanimously held that the First Amendment protects a public employee who provides truthful sworn testimony, compelled by subpoena, outside the scope of his/her ordinary job duties. Sworn testimony in a judicial […]


June 25, 2014 - Paid sick leave law spreads

by Betsy Earls Associated Oregon Industries Oregon’s largest business advocate On, June 18, the Eugene City Council voted to draft an ordinance requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to workers. The ordinance is expected to be ready for a hearing July 21, and a vote July 28. The council […]


June 24, 2014 - NIke’s new hi-tech baseball shoe

By NIKE, Baseball is a game of incremental advances and steady progress – from first to second, from the minors to the majors – and traditionally, that same progression has been mirrored in the sport’s technology. Enter the Nike Vapor Collection: ultra-light, ultra-fast equipment engineered to accelerate baseball athletes to […]


June 23, 2014 - Agencies attack restrictions on employer speech: Part 1

Ater Wynne LLP NW Law frim The EEOC and NLRB continue to target employers who restrict employee speech and conduct, especially when those restrictions could impact employees’ rights under labor and employment laws. The EEOC recently filed suit attacking the use of certain terms in employer settlement agreements, this time […]


June 20, 2014 - Big Data can save newspapers from extinction

U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation Rich Cooper Vice President of Research & Emerging Issues. For four years I had the job growing up that a lot of young men had—I was a “paperboy” for the local newspaper, in this case The Pittsburgh Press. This was back in the Stone Age, […]


June 19, 2014 - Liqour change will not be on November ballot

Associated Oregon Industries Oregon’s largest business advocate Supporters of a move to privatize sales of liquor in Oregon have decided to drop back and regroup for another election cycle. On Wednesday, Oregonians for Competition decided that in the face of continuing legal challenges, there wasn’t enough time to collect signatures […]


June 18, 2014 - Who’s laying off, exiting Oregon?

Who’s Laying Off & Moving? By Oregon Small Business Association Vestas’ 200 Oregon jobs soon gone with the wind As of early May, the Danish wind turbine maker Vestas Wind Systems, is increasingly pointing all turbines towards Colorado. All indications by Chris Brown, Vestas’ North American President, point towards “site […]


June 17, 2014 - Should business fret latest GDP negative growth?

by Bill Conerly, Oregon economist Conerly Consulting, Businomics One Down Quarter for the Economy Is Not a Recession The rough rule of thumb is that a recession has two or more consecutive quarters of declining real GDP.* Why not just one quarter? We have a good example of why not […]