Environment Oregon

Environment Oregon headquarters in SE Portland. .

Environment Oregon is a political non-profit organization in the U.S. state of Oregon, that lobbies for legislation in regard to environmental policy on local, state and national levels. It is affiliated with Environment America, a federation of environmental organizations in thirty states.^[1] Based in Portland, Oregon, it has more than 35,000 members throughout the state.^[2][3]

History

Environment Oregon was created in 2007 to house the Oregon State Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG, a local affiliate of the Public Interest Research Group) environmental programs. OSPIRG was started by students at the University of Oregon, inspired by Ralph Nader, who did a speaking tour of college campuses in the early 1970s.^[4]

Politics

In 2007 Environment Oregon lobbied the state legislature for renewable energy and for Measure 49, a ballot measure regarding land use planning.

Membership and labor

Environment Oregon's job listings hung throughout Portland say that employees can make between $4,000 to $6,000 performing "great summer jobs." In reality, most employees do not last an entirely summer with the company, but rather last less than a week. Some employees claim that this is due to unrealistic quotas set by the company.

Environment Oregon works with the Fund for Public Interest Research to conduct its fundraising and membership operations, employing dozens of canvassers and phone-callers who contact Oregonians door-to-door, on street corners and over the phone. The Fund is currently a defendant in a class-action lawsuit brought by current and former canvassers.^[5] Environment Oregon has faced criticism for its recruitment and employment practices. Environment Oregon recruits college students on campus, and people on the street, with the promise of having a "fun summer job." Despite the fact that employees work for eight full hours the first day of their employment (referred to as their "shadowing" day), they are only paid for five hours of their first day of employment. Employees are then given a quota (amount of money they must raise from donations from the public) they must meet and are told that if they do not meet their quota three days in a row then they will be fired. Former employees have told Portland Mercury that even when quotas they are sometimes accused by management of falsifying their reports. Others claim that Environment Oregon purposefully sets quota marks too high as a means of sabotaging the employee, thereby enabling the company to fire workers easily. As a result, Environment Oregon has a very high turnover rate. Environment Oregon has also been subject to picket protests for its unfair employment practices. Though Brandon, a field manager for Environment Oregon, claims that the company has never been picketed, Portland Mercury has published a picture of workers protesting and holding signs that clearly say "Environment Oregon" on them. Field managers, and director Sarah Higginbotham routinely ask new canvassers in a casual tone, "So, you're from the Portland area?" Canvassers have speculated that this is in an attempt to determine whether they (the canvassers) are familiar with the demographics of the various Portland areas and are thereby able to understand when they (the canvassers) have been given a bad area in which to attempt to raise funds. ^[6]

Gallery

A view inside Environment Oregon headquarters.

• 

  To the right, one can see tables set up with laptops from which "field managers" decide on the daily routes for employees.

• 

  To the left in this picture one can see the location of the many clipboards with information about the organization. Employees take these clips boards with them as they disperse throughout the city.

References

External links

• Environment Oregon (official website)
• Environment America
• OSPIRG
• Workers picket progressive group OSPRIG and Environment Oregon