On Thursday, October 6, we made progress on several important bargaining issues with the County including floating holidays, sick leave, contract language protecting the safety and health of workers, and jail-side premiums. This progress would not have been possible without the solidarity and efforts you showed turning out to our informational pickets three weeks ago! This week close to 80 new members joined our union and we heard from many of these new members how much they appreciated the work or our union in fighting for a fair contract.
While we made progress on several important issues on Thursday, we still have some substantial differences with the County on other issues including but not limited to Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA), trauma leave, part-time employee holiday benefits, and trial service. While they moved closer to our position, the County’s proposed package of bonuses and across the board wage increases (also known as COLAs), still falls short of what we believe our members need to settle our contract. We bargain again with the County on October 20th and before that session we will give the County a full package proposal covering all of these vitally important issues.
You can help support our bargaining efforts in the coming weeks! We have some important actions coming up to remind the County of our unity and that we demand a fair contract. These actions are being conducted in solidarity with our union siblings at the Oregon Nurses Association who are also in bargaining.
- Tuesday, October 11th 6pm to 8pm Informational Picket – Northeast Health Center/ Walnut Park – 5329 NE MLK Blvd, Portland
- Tuesday, October 18th Noon to 1pm Informational Picket – Multnomah Building – 501 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland
Our general unit team bargains again with the County on Thursday, October 20th and our physicians bargaining team bargains again on October 13th and 24th. You can support our bargaining efforts by wearing green, a union button or putting up a placard in your workplace. You can also put a Union background up for your virtual meetings:
- AFSCME meeting backgrounds
- Instructions on changing your virtual meeting background.
