Cheri Helt and Christina Stephenson vie for the nonpartisan Commissioner of Labor and Industries seat, a role that oversees all programs of the Bureau of Labor and Industries
The Oregon Commissioner of Labor and Industries, or labor commissioner, is a nonpartisan, elected position that manages and oversees all programs of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, or BOLI. The term for the position is four years.
The current labor commissioner, Val Hoyle, a Democrat, is retiring after her first term as labor commissioner to run to represent the Fourth Congressional District of Oregon in the U.S. Congress.
There are four principal duties for the position, according to the bureau.
The first is to protect the rights of workers to receive equal, non-discriminatory treatment at work, in housing and public accommodations through the enforcement of anti-discrimination laws. The second principle is to enforce and encourage compliance with wages, hours, terms and conditions of employment. The third is to train employers to comply with civil rights, wage and hour laws. Finally, the commissioner is tasked with developing a skilled workforce through the application of the state’s apprenticeship program and collaborating with labor, business, government and educational institutions.
BOLI oversees approximately 130 employees and a budget of about $30 million.
Cheri Helt
Cheri Helt is a 51-year-old former Republican state representative and a former member of the Bend-LaPine school board. She co-owns and operates Zydeco Kitchen and Cocktails restaurant in Bend. Helt served as the representative for Oregon House District 54, which includes Bend, from 2018 to 2020. Helt ran for House District 54 in 2020 as the incumbent but lost the election, as well as the support of many conservatives for supporting mandatory vaccinations in public schools.
Helt did not respond to multiple requests for an interview with Street Roots.
Although the position is officially nonpartisan, endorsements for candidates have been primarily split according to party lines. Those who endorse Helt for labor commissioner include Republican candidate for Oregon Governor Christine Drazan, Independent candidate for Oregon Governor Betsy Johnson and controversial pro-timber group Timber Unity.
After Democratic candidate for Oregon Governor Tina Kotek highlighted Timber Unity’s ties to right-wing extremist groups, Helt tweeted she is “proud” of their endorsement, as well as the endorsement of other conservatives.
“We have all had enough of the @OregonGovBrown / @TinaKotek lie that everyone who disagrees with them is racist,” Helt tweeted Sept. 12. “We need new leadership in Salem that values ALL Oregonians.”
On her website, Helt says her priorities include fully implementing paid family leave, expanding workforce housing, defending workers’ civil rights and expanding apprenticeship programs, but makes no mention of any specific policies nor outlines any steps by which these actions would be taken.
During her time as a state representative, Helt was a co-sponsor of the bill that passed 12 weeks of paid family leave in Oregon.
During her time as a Bend-LaPine school board member in 2016, Helt was a supporter of Measure 98, which provided funding to establish and expand career and technical education programs, dropout prevention and college-level education opportunities in Oregon’s public schools.
In 2019, Helt voted against Oregon House Bill 216, which sought to establish a worker’s right to participate in a union. HB 216 passed without Helt’s vote.
In an interview with the League of Women Voters of Portland’s “LVWPDX Podcast” in April, Helt reiterated her priorities if she were to be elected.
“We need to address all the issues at the bureau by making sure our locations are correct on our website,” Helt said on the podcast. “We need to address the unassigned cases that have not even been assigned yet, and we need to do a full, thorough review of where our strengths and weaknesses are so we can serve Oregonians well and to fidelity.”
Helt said she believes the needs of employers and employees “naturally balance themselves,” but that there are occasionally “bad apples” who require laws to be enforced and that she would “be there” to do so.
BOLI, which rarely gains public attention, made a headline-grabbing decision in 2015 in the case of the Sweet Cakes by Melissa decision. In that case, BOLI determined that a Gresham-area bakery violated a 2007 Oregon law that bans discrimination based on sexual orientation by refusing to bake a cake for a lesbian couple in 2013.
BOLI also issued the bakery a $135,000 fine for its transgression, though the Oregon Court of Appeals overturned the damages portion of the determination earlier this year.
BOLI’s ruling resulted in years of litigation, with the bakery’s owners pursuing the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, making this case BOLI’s most consequential decision in recent years.
When asked about the Sweet Cakes case, Helt told the Oregonian BOLI’s ruling was wrongly decided, saying the office was not a “political mouthpiece,” saying she would be “fair and balanced” if elected to the position of BOLI commissioner.
Helt said she would “champion workforce housing” and that it is impossible for housing access to be fair if there is not enough affordable housing and workforce housing to support workers in Oregon. Workforce housing is housing that is affordable to people making between 60% and 90% of the area median income.
In her interview with the LWVOP, Helt said while working as a state legislator, she worked with BOLI Commissioner Hoyle on a law that “expanded enforcement and education around fair housing,” which passed after she left office.
Helt raised more than $360,000 dollars for her campaign and currently has approximately $50,000 dollars of campaign cash on hand. Her largest donors include pro-business groups like the Oregon Realtors PAC, which has donated to all of Helt’s campaigns, this time to the tune of $45,000, as well as $20,000 from Oregon Business and Industry, a business association.
During May’s primary election, Helt earned 19.3% of the vote, coming in second place behind attorney Christina Stephenson.
Christina Stephenson
Christina Stephenson is a civil rights attorney and small business owner who was born and raised in Oregon. Stephenson co-owns the Portland-based law firm Meyer Stephenson Employment Law.
Stephenson said her more than a decade of experience perfectly positions her for the role of BOLI commissioner. She is endorsed by the prior five BOLI commissioners, both Democrat and Republican.
“I have the depth of experience with the work of this agency,” Stephenson said. “Basically, I had BOLI on speed dial for a decade. I have experience with the law and understand (it) from both perspectives, as a business owner and an advocate for workers. And that dual experience, I think, is going to help make sure that we have the sort of effective labor commissioner.”
At her law firm, Stephenson represents workers in claims of discrimination, wage claims, harassment, wrongful termination and retaliation by employers.
“As a civil rights attorney, my day job is representing workers who are getting a raw deal when employers do not follow the rules enshrined by the Bureau of Labor and Industries,” Stephenson said. “So I've done that on behalf of employees, and I've also helped employers understand how to comply with the rules. I also own and operate a business, so just like anybody else, I have to follow those rules as well.”
Stephenson names wage theft as one of the primary workers’ rights issues affecting Oregon today. Stephenson says there needs to be stronger, more consistent enforcement in wage theft cases. In only 16% of cases where an employer owes an employee money is a penalty levied at the employer, and in only 1% of those cases is a penalty collected, information Stephenson highlighted from an analysis by the Oregon Center for Public Policy.
The process for addressing wage theft claims can take many months, time that Stephenson says could be the difference between someone making rent or being able to access medical care.
Stephenson told Street Roots “systematic disinvestment” in BOLI has reduced the size of its workforce even as Oregon continues to grow in population and, as a result, reduced its ability to enforce wage laws.
Stephenson said she plans to seek additional budget dollars to expand the size of BOLI’s workforce as well as implement a model deploying BOLI’s resources to target “the worst actors, the repeat offenders” of labor law violations.
“That is an urgent issue for us, is to make sure that our wage laws are enforced and that there's actually a deterrent effect so that we're not just kind of giving an interest-free loan to people who are using wage theft as a business model,” Stephenson said.
Stephenson said being efficient and strategic is the best way to overcome BOLI’s current resource shortage.
Stephenson says she’s familiar with BOLI’s anti-discrimination responsibilities as a civil rights attorney. She says BOLI needs to be doing “its best work” in the anti-discrimination sphere.
“I think the way that we judge our society is how we treat our most marginalized workers,” Stephenson said. “Right now, I think there is a lot of opportunity on both sides of the coin for employers to better understand their responsibilities, and for employees to better understand their rights and actually know that BOLI is a resource to them.”
The state’s apprenticeship programs, which provide on-the-job training and classroom instruction for jobs like electricians and waterproofers, recently received an $18 million dollar boost from Gov. Kate Brown’s Future Ready Oregon Initiative.
Stephenson says she would continue building on the existing successes of apprenticeship programs and seek to expand the industries in which the state offers apprenticeship programs to include health care and child care. She says that if elected, she hopes voters see her pushing for greater access to family-wage jobs for Oregon workers.
“I think (apprenticeships) will also be a crucial tool for us as we're looking to the transition to a climate resilient economy,” Stephenson said. “Making sure that we’re thoughtful about how to make sure that that is a diverse workforce that works for both Oregon and our environment. That'll be, I think, our next phase.”
Although BOLI primarily deals with labor laws, it is also responsible for preventing discrimination in housing, an area where Stephenson says that if elected, she would seek to “increase BOLI’s footprint.”
“I'm hoping that we will increase our footprint by making sure that people really know their rights and understand, especially when you have such scarce housing, that discrimination should not be a barrier to housing,” Stephenson said.
She explained she would seek to increase BOLI’s impact in this area through increased staffing, increased outreach and partnerships with organizations to alert tenants and landlords to their rights and responsibilities.
Christina Stephenson has raised nearly $800,000 dollars for her campaign and has roughly $170,000 dollars of cash on hand. Her major donors are primarily labor unions’ political action committees, like the Local 48 Electricians PAC and the Commercial Workers International Union, which each donated $100,000 and $80,000 dollars to her campaign, respectively.
Stephenson earned 46.2% of the vote in May’s primary election, just under the 50% of the vote needed to avoid a runoff election.
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