Introduction
Central City Concern (CCC), is the largest homeless services nonprofit in the Portland area, that over 14,000 poor and working people depend on for access to healthcare, housing, and rehabilitation. In early summer of 2026, CCC announced to their Health Services staff members that they will be removing all Health Assistants from their clinics to a remote Call Center this fall. Health clinic workers immediately expressed concerns over the Call Center for its impacts to their workload, workplace morale, and ability to provide quality care to patients.
In June, CCC hosted a failed listening session between executives and individual workers that excluded the employee union, AFSCME Local 88, from conversations. No workers attended, knowing that this would risk putting a target on themselves for potential retaliation.
Olivia was a Health Assistant at the CCC Old Town Clinic who was unjustly fired in July. She is a wife, migrant, and foster mom to an infant family member. She was the only Union Steward of Color in CCC's Local 88 shop, which represents over 750 CCC workers. While Olivia has no previous disciplinary record, she did two things that CCC acted in retaliation against: 1) voiced her and her fellow workers' concern against the Call Center, and 2) as the Union Steward, documented HR's retaliation against an employee of color who reported racist comments made by their coworker.
With management identifying Olivia as someone vocal about workers rights and against racist behavior at work, but no prior disciplinary record to escalate from, CCC fabricated claims that she bullied and harassed coworkers, which was abruptly escalated to termination of her employment. Workers typically need 3-4 warnings before receiving the 'just cause' termination that Olivia received, but Olivia received no warnings. 'Just cause' termination also disqualifies her from receiving unemployment from CCC, further threatening her ability to provide for her family and infant child. Furthermore, she received a notice in the mail stating that she is excluded from accessing all CCC Health Services and trespassed from all CCC locations indefinitely. The exclusions and trespass are due to false accusations of her of returning to CCC property and making threats to staff at Old Town Clinic, after being terminated. Olivia hadn't stepped foot on CCC property since her firing, only her wife who went to pick up her last check to the knowledge of their union representative. CCC has still not responded with timestamps and camera footage of when their claimed incident of harrassment and threat-making happened.
CCC's disproportionate and escalatory response is a clear attempt to isolate a union organizer from her fellow workers in their effort to organize against the Call Center. Since CCC cannot enforce a communication ban, they made it so any future organizing efforts cannot physically include Olivia, and have resorted to defamation and a threat of retaliation against any worker to speak out.
Does CCC want to be known as the organization that retaliates against workers for speaking up about their working conditions and reporting racist behavior? Does CCC want to be known as the organization that unjustly fires and defames their workers based on a fabricated story? CCC's actions are union-busting, racist, defaming, and illegal. CCC's management does not follow the values it claims to have, and the unjust termination of her employment has threatened Olivia and her family's livelihood.
We demand justice for Olivia and an end to the CCC Call Center!
Our Demands:
- Stop the Call Center!
- Address racism at CCC, justice for workers who have experienced retaliation!
- Give Olivia her job back
- Pay back Olivia's lost wages
- Rescind the exclusion of Olivia from all CCC Health Services locations
- Apologize! Publicly and on all platforms
A History of Lack of Care
CCC has a history of union-busting and being a real estate monopoly with a pattern of residents deaths in their housing due to lack of care. CCC is the largest housing provider in Portland, and has 7 lawsuits against them over bodies left decaying in their facilities for weeks. One of the lawsuits alleges that "at least 34 other people have died and were later discovered with signs of significant postmortem decay in a Central City Concern building." Time and time again, CCC fails to perform wellness checks on their residents, despite being required to by their standards and continuously pressured by residents' family and friends.
While the current CEO of Central City Concern claims to be friendly with the union, workers understand the contradiction between what the executives say and their actions that follow. Many of the impacts that CCC attributes to accidents are instances of trying to cut corners on services and staffing in order to save money. The most recent lawsuit against CCC alleges that the death of Eric Eno happened at a time where occupancy at CCC's Shoreline Building was at a record low, and if CCC had discovered Eno was missing or dead, it could've affected revenue that was contingent on maintaining minimum occupancy. CCC collects our taxpayer funded money and city contracts, but skips out on the people when we need them most.
During a new wave of US fascism including punishment for political dissent and volatility in funding for social services, CCC is emboldened to make drastic, anti-people changes that unabashedly sacrifice the livelihoods of their workers and patients first. Unionized workers at CCC are set to receive a 3% raise in October of this year, making it great fiscal timing to terminate as many employees as they can and consolidate the Health Administrators from two clinic locations into one Call Center. Fabricating a story of threats and harassment absolves CCC of needing to pay the unemployment fees associated with layoffs or no cause terminations, that they would have to implement otherwise.
Every worker in the social services non-profit industrial complex has experienced similar conditions. Executives and managers make unilateral decisions that impact their staff and their clients, while being removed from the work, yet rewarded with cushy salaries. The people on the ground, actually doing the work, creating the relationships, advocating for people, seeing the trauma, make significantly less with little to no support or understanding from their superiors. When the people on the ground try to collectivize their power and use their voices together, they are silenced, targeted, and pushed out or fired from the organizations.
Funding for social services is precarious as ever, but that doesn't give organizations an excuse to abandon the needs of the workers and the lives of patients. We have seen what happens to Portland nonprofits when they mistreat their workers and misuse their funds--in the case of former homeless service nonprofit Sunstone Way/All Good Northwest, they get shut down.
Call Centers: Cut Jobs, Save Money
The impacts of the Call Center has both immediate and long-term consequences, and they all come down to eliminating jobs to save money.
Immediate Impacts to Workers & Patients
- Worsens working conditions for clinicians, medical assistants, and other staff. Clinicians and medical staff are already understaffed and stretched thin, and will have to use more of their time for lengthy administrative tasks, technology fixes, and logistical troubleshooting when what they need to focus on is providing quality care.
- Physically removes Health Assistants from the Care Team. Health Assistants work closely with their specific Care Team that's responsible for the health of a few hundred patients. Removing them from their respective clinic dissolves their direct line of communication and affects the relationships and rapport built within the care team and towards the patient.
- Reduced quality of care for patients. Having a segregated Care Team, reduced morale, more responsibilities for Clinicians, higher turnover, and no human connection with the Health Assistants will lead to reduced quality of care for patients and more dehumanizing healthcare experiences for patients who are already poor, houseless, and at the margins of the city.
- More barriers to employment. Consolidation of the Health Assistant role creates less access to one of the few entry-level positions in CCC's Health Services that does not require a higher degree or expensive trainings to obtain.
Long-Term Impacts
CCC knows that the Call Centers will decrease the quality of care that the clinics provide to its patients. That's a drawback they're willing to take, if it means saving on costs down the line. They understand that the corners they cut to save some funds are unpopular and will receive pushback from workers, so they phase out the segregation and elimination of jobs over time.
Their tiered tactics over time allow them to:
- Reduce morale in the short term hoping that people will quit so they can hire new, less experienced, less vocal Health Assistants and pay them less (a tried and true corporate tactic)
- Physically remove the Health Assistant role from the clinic to cut off relationships while not immediately eliminating any jobs which would lead to stronger push back
- Merge the Health Assistants from two clinics --Old Town Clinic and Blackburn Clinic-- into one Call Center to be able to cut down on employees over time
- Create a smoother transition to job automation or offshoring in the future. Once the Health Assistants are moved off-site, it's likely not long before the next cost-saving proposal is announced. These proposals could look like: Health Assistants are moved to a state or country with less strict labor laws; workers are asked to take on the job of multiple people claiming they now have the support of AI and other automation tools.
Labor Unions and their Right-Wing Capitulation
A Labor Union could be looked at simply as an organization created by and for workers to join together with the goal of negotiating with their employers. Labor unions are a tool for workers to have a say in their working conditions, working relationships, pay, and treatment. While labor unions have a revolutionary history and are sites for potential qualitative material changes for workers, they often times fall short and do not represent the true needs of the workers.
AFSCME Local 88 has an official union representative working on Olivia's case. Local 88 is attempting to request Olivia get her job back and get back pay. Currently however, AFSCME Local 88 has not signed on to the petition to have her rehired publicly, as this would require a vote to the executive committee which would could take weeks to assemble and only meets once a month. If AFSCME Local 88 did sign on to this petition, it could harm its ability to maintain civil negotiations with CCC. AFSCME Local 88 also gets to vote on whether or not to go to arbitration for this case, deciding the fate of whether they will fund a legal process that would further protect Olivia.
What is the role of a Labor Union?
As said before, labor unions can be a powerful tool for workers to come together and unite on demands aimed at their employer. Labor unions should be there to protect their workers, harnessing their collective power toward enacting real change.
In the beginning times of labor organizing as economies were industrializing, the lines were a bit more cut and dry. Workers from various factories would organize together against one employer/company/boss. Under the current stage of monopoly capitalism, globalization, and corporate lobbying, organizing workers has more levels which complicates communication, advocacy, and the ultimate goals of a labor union.
For context to this specific issue: CCC Workers Union has two Union Leads, who are supposed to act as liasons between their union members (CCC employees), CCC Administration, and AFSCME Local 88. Union leads are supposed to hear the concerns and demands of their constituents and work with AFSCME Local 88 representatives to bring them to CCC Administration in order to find solutions and enact change. AFSCME Local 88 is a coalition of labor unions, specifically supporting workers in Multonomah County, representing around 3,400 members.
Currently, the Health Assistant workers of Central City Concern need protections from the creation of the Call Center, which would automate jobs, decrease the quality of care for clients, and set a precendent for layoffs across the organization. The CCC Call Center was brought up in May 2026. Since then, Olivia has worked tirelessly to get this on the agenda at CCC Worker Union meetings but has been silenced by CCC Union Leads. AFSCME Local 88 has not addressed the issue of a CCC Call Center publicly.
The CCC Union leadership and AFSCME Local 88 has shown reactionary tendencies in not wanting to "rock the boat" in regards to advocating for their members, calling out working conditions, or taking a stand against the upcoming hyper-exploitation and loss of jobs through the Call Center. This is an example of the union capitulating to the interest of the CCC administrators, prioritizing peace and comfort between the capitalists and their petite bourgeoise Union Leads.
What are the solutions the workers need?
CCC Workers Union needs a clear way to choose their leaders. Currently at the CCC Workers Union, the CCC Union Lead is chosen by the CCC Bargaining Committee based on seniority – not on the person's interest and competency in representing the workers' needs. This has led to the current situation where the CCC's Union Leads are both right-wing fascist supporters who's actions sypathize with CCC's management in keeping their workers scattered, scared of retaliation, and suppressing their collective power in favor of the comfort of the managers and executives. In the future, there needs to be a guaranteed popular vote where CCC union members get to chose their Union Leads.
Rebuild the militancy of labor unions through class conscious education. The decisions made within the labor union as part of the workers must reflect the needs of the lowest wage, most marginalized workers to be effective as a revolutionary force. As labor unions across the US continue to take on a petite-bourgeoise mindset, urging workers to be content with a bare-minimum wage and some benefits, we must ensure that all workers are educated on the class character of labor unions and their leaders today, especially to stand in opposition to the union-busting propaganda that CCC has historically engaged in. It is not enough to be able to have the democratic power to elect Union Leads if the workers do not understand the needs behind it.
Union meetings need to be accessible to the people in the union. As a union-busting tactic, many union meetings are now inaccessible to members. Meetings are forcibily over an hour walking distance from workplaces, or over half an hour away by public transit, on a bus that comes once an hour. There is no way to join these meetings remotely or virtually even after many asks by workers.
Workers deserve to have a union that views it as their job to protect their job. The current Union Leads at CCC have stated clearly that they do not see it as their job to protect other union jobs or other union members. They simply see it as their job to interpret the Collective Barganing Agreement (CBA) and police others into following their interpretation of it. This is true to most Union Stewards, with very rare exception. Olivia and her partner were some of the few people to object to this interpretation of duty and were pushed out of the workplace. Throughout this whole process, we have seen that CCC Workers Union and AFSCME Local 88 are not doing their job of protecting their worker, her rights, and her ability to provide for her family. Neither have done anything to push back on Central City Concernʻs unsubstantiated tresspassing claims and exclusion from services. Being wrongfully terminated from one's job, going without pay or financial support for months could leave someone houseless and without resources. If that person is also excluded from receiving services from the City's largest homeless and health services provider, what are they to do then?
Conclusion
In "What Is To Be Done?", Lenin exposes the nature of how unions can be utilized as a tool to help raise the consciousness of workers, if the leaders and members were to incorporate a revolutionary mindset. But we must remember, unions alone are not the revolution. Unions and unionizing historically have acted as a trap where the need for change (revolutionary fervor) has been pushed to the side for reforms of a specific working sector, rather than actual changing of the structure.
As socialists, we should understand and study the role labor unions play and how they can add or detract from the greater revolution and our goals. While we must work tirelessly to continue to raise the consciousness of workers and organize our labor power especially where they are the most concentrated, in revolution not all places will have a union. We must build revolutionary power both inside and outside of the workplace, both increasing the militancy of labor unions and creating revolutionary organizations that center the most marginalized of the working class masses. Our ultimate goal is to change the worker's entire relationship to the mode of production, from being exploited to sell our labor under capitalism, to collectively owning the means to our production under communism. It's the meme of non-profits and pizza parties. We cannot fall for the pizza party (unionization) but must take up the struggle to elimate the need for pizza parties (changing the mode of production).
Sign the Petition, Call CCC and Uplift our Demands!
The people of a community deserve to have a hand and a say in their health and the betterment of their communities. Outsiders coming in to community with lots to say about "how to heal" without communal input is not acually betterment. It's colonization. The people of Old Town and Portland deserve better. They are best served by those within their community, people who have lived experiences similiar to theirs. To exclude those people without reason, to label them without evidence as violent, to exile them from those services while simultaneously having a monopoly on them is unconscionable and hateful. People die in Old Town because organizations like CCC withhold their services or are derelict of their duty. In a time with precarious funding for social services, organizations who mistreat their workers and misuse their funds have vanished, what makes CCC think they wont?
Sign and share the petition at: http://change.org/supportolivia
Call CCC Health Services Management at (503) 294-1681 to share these demands and let them know that the community is watching and will hold them accountable!
Our Demands:
- Stop the Call Center!
- Address racism at CCC, justice for workers who have experienced retaliation!
- Give Olivia her job back
- Pay back Olivia's lost wages
- Rescind the exclusion of Olivia from all CCC Health Services locations
- Apologize! Publicly and on all platforms