BEND, OR -- Local gas stations are reacting to a labor union effort to repeal Oregon’s new self-serve gas law. One attendant at a Northeast Bend Station tells KBND News he’s heard self-serve has hurt workers, “So I was under the impression that this was always supposed to be an option for people if they want to pump their own not to put people on the unemployment line, which is apparently it's done.”
The union has launched an initiative petition to put the issue on the November 2024 ballot.
“Yeah, I would try to bring it back. I heard they want to repeal it. I hope they do. I don't think it will happen,” the attendant said while agreeing with the union’s claim that jobs have been lost, “And I've met people from other parts of the state and they've always telling me that, like Portland, Metro Eugene and places have gotten rid of all kinds of people.”
He says most people have been fine pumping their own gas since the legislature approved self-serve earlier this year. “I got it. I understood. But to me I just think it was a bad move because the unemployment thing.”
He also says there has been some confusion over full and self-serve these past three months. “They go, is this a place that does gas pumping? And I'm like, yeah, we have attendants here and they're like, well, we don't understand. We went over there and people said do your own and they're yelling from across the parking... you know, like in a convenience store,” and noted the union’s claim that gas stations are more dangerous, “I seen somebody pumping gas and the next thing, you know, they had a problem and it was gushing out.”
An employee at a station on the east side of Bend says regardless of the outcome of the petition effort, their business won’t change, “Whether it gets approved or not, we'll definitely still have fuel attendants on our island, serving our community and our customers.”
The United Food and Commercial Workers union must gather more than 117,000 signatures by July to put the issue on the ballot in November 2024.
File Photo
