Updated February 24 More than 50 warehouse employees and community members joined a pro-unionization rally Feb. 20 outside an Amazon warehouse in Troutdale that has seen 217 COVID-19 cases. The employees alleged unsafe working conditions and argued they need union protections the latest example of nationwide labor organizing at Amazon distribution centers. An employee of a North Portland Amazon warehouse, who identified himself as Keith, said he is a military veteran and formerly homeless. None of that was as difficult as the year and a half I have spent working at an Amazon warehouse, Keith said. It is the worst. It is more dehumanizing, more degrading, more isolating and more injurious and hazardous to my health than being in the United States Army.
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Murmurs: Hernandez Resigns In other news: Lights out at Mahonia Hall. Rep. Diego Hernandez. (Sam Gehrke) Updated February 24
HERNANDEZ RESIGNS: After U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken on Feb. 20 rejected a plea from state Rep. Diego Hernandez (D-East Portland) to block a vote to expel him from the Oregon House, Hernandez resigned Feb. 21 rather than wait to see if 40 or more of the 60 members of the House would eject him. A couple of years ago, Hernandez appeared poised for higher office. But since