An SEIU rally (Brian Brose)
Oregon Health Care Association Persuades Court to Temporarily Block Release of Job Applicant Names
The state planned to give SEIU 70,000 names of people who want to work as caregivers.
By Nigel Jaquiss
May 6, 2026
The Oregon Health Care Association obtained a temporary restraining order May 1 that blocked the Oregon Department of Human Services from revealing the names of about 70,000 people who had applied to the agency for background checks in order to become caregivers.
As OJP reported earlier, those applicants submitted their names and other information to the state as part of the required vetting for people who wish to work in nursing homes and also care for developmentally disabled Oregonians.
In November 2025, Service Employees International Union, the state’s largest public sector labor organization, filed a public records request with DHS, seeking the names of such applicants.
In a May 1 filing in Marion County Circuit Court, the Oregon Health Care Association, an industry group for more than 1,000 nursing homes and other long-term care providers, objected to SEIU’s request, saying the applicants’ names were “submitted in confidence and should reasonably be considered confidential” and are therefore exempt from disclosure under Oregon’s Public Records Law.
SEIU told OJP in March that it wanted the applicants’ names to explore their training and working conditions as well as to try to organize them—much of the long-term care workforce is nonunion. (The workers are not public employees.)
In its motion for a temporary restraining order, the Oregon Health Care Association told the court that DHS, from November 2025 to March 12, failed to discuss the proposed release of names until the agency told employers it planned to release the names the next day. The employers persuaded DHS officials to pause that release, but then, without further consultation, DHS notified employers May 1 it would release the 70,000 names that day.
Marion County Circuit Judge Thomas Hart granted the restraining order and has set a hearing for May 7.
DHS and the Oregon Department of Justice, which represents DHS in court, declined to comment.