It started as a union march, expected to rally maybe a thousand workers and their supporters in support of preserving state services targeted for budget cuts in the Legislature.
"Every group goes to Salem to protest at the Capitol," says Linda Burgin, president of SEIU Local 503, which organized this Sunday's United for Oregon March. "We thought it might attract a little more attention if we gathered in Portland where there are so many seniors, children and others who would suffer from these proposed cuts. I'm not sure anyone thought we would get this much attention. I think it's a sign that people really do care about these issues."
Word about the event began to spread when union members approached some traditional allies for support. At last count, nearly two dozen Oregon-based groups had signed on as co-sponsors, among them AARP Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon, Children First for Oregon, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, Oregon Alliance for Retired Americans, the Oregon PTA, Portland Jobs with Justice and the Rural Organizing Project.
Participants will gather at noon on the Eastbank Esplanade between SE Main and SE Taylor Streets and starting at 1 p.m. begin marching across the Hawthorne Bridge and up SW Madison Street to Terry Schrunk Plaza, where a 2 p.m. rally will include appearances by union and community activists as well a performance in support of the workers by popular blues singer Linda Hornbuckle, "soul diva of the Northwest."
SEIU Local 503 members who are planning the event say they don't know how many people will march, but concern that the turnout might be higher than originally anticipated sent them scrambling last week to secure a permit for use of Chapman Square, a city park across Madison Street from Terry Schrunk Plaza, to handle any overflow. The plaza, which is built over a parking garage, has a capacity of 2,000.
The south pedestrian walk across the bridge will be closed during the march and north-south vehicular traffic crossing Madison from the bridge to SW Third Avenue will be halted as the marchers make their way to the plaza.
One reason an event originally planned as a union rally for 40,000 state workers, university workers and care providers and the people they serve may be morphing into something large can be seen in the words of those whose groups are affected by nearly $2 billion in cuts to human services, education and public safety in the latest proposed budget under consideration in Salem.
One proposal would eliminate day-care subsidies for thousands of low-income working parents.
"Employment-related day care is one of the most important programs we have in our state," says Cathy Kaufmann, policy and communications director of Children First for Oregon, who co-chairs the Oregon Human Services Coalition. "It provides help for parents so that they can provide quality care for their children and get back in or stay in the work force. This program deserves protection. It's good for the economy, it's good for low-income families and it's good for children."
Other proposals would slash eligibility for in-home care, costing long-term care providers 3,868 jobs and sacrificing $2.64 in federal aid for every state dollar saved.
"Not only are these proposed cuts heartless," said Jerry Cohen, state director of AARP, "but they make no sense economically both because they send money out of our economy and back to the federal government and because many of these seniors will be prematurely placed in more expensive facilities for lack of an in-home care option."