A well-known Portland maker of light fixtures and home furnishings laid off most of its staff last month, including about 20 production workers represented by IBEW Local 48.
Schoolhouse Electric assembles and ships high-end lighting fixtures and home furnishings from a four-story brick building at 2181 NW Nicolai St. in an industrial area of Northwest Portland. Founded in 2003, the company was sold for $48 million in 2021 to online home goods marketplace Food52 — with funding from its new private equity owner The Chernin Group. That sale and safety concerns from a speedup in production were factors in workers’ decision to unionize in October 2022. They ratified a first union contract in December 2023.
At the time of the union vote there were about 70 production workers, but staff cuts since then, including a round of layoffs in March 2025, brought the number down to about 20. In May Food52 put its Northwest Portland factory building up for sale…