Bargaining Update – March 17, 2025

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Bargaining Update #5

Day of Action - March 20

Due to scheduling conflicts, our Union and the County will not be meeting for the bargaining session on Thursday March 20. Instead, Bargaining and Member Action Team members will be hosting several listening sessions across County locations – in person and virtually, between 11am to 2pm March 20th.

If you have questions about layoffs, want better wages, want to protect your telework options and benefits – this is where you wanna be. 

Here are the locations: 

  • Central Courthouse – 1200 SW 1st Ave, Portland, OR 97204
  • Central Library – 801 SW 10th Ave, Portland, OR 97205
  • McCoy Building – 619 NW 6th Ave, Portland, OR 97209
  • Multnomah County East – 600 NE 8th St, Gresham, OR 97030

Our virtual sessions meeting links:

All represented staff within the bargaining unit are welcome to attend any of these listening sessions regardless of membership status. Each listening session will span 1-2 hours to give folks flexibility to attend; attending any of these listening sessions needs to be done on unpaid time, like during a lunch break. Hope to see you there!  

Union Proposals

The Bargaining Team proposed a few big Articles around employee safety, health, and job security. 

Article 19: Modification of Work Performed by the Bargaining Unit

  • This one has huge implications for employees affected by layoffs. 
  • We proposed language that gives the Union more control and ability to bargain over how the County contracts out work normally done by employees.
  • Our goal is to be able to make sure that the County utilizes the employees they currently have and to recall employees rather than contracting out services employees would normally perform.  

Article 25: Safety and Wellness

  • We proposed a lot of new language around how safety involves proper staffing levels, the effects of toxic stress on employees, and giving employees the right to refuse work they know will negatively affect them.

Article X: Successorship

  • Any new Article proposed will be titled without a number. 
  • This ensures if any part of the bargaining unit is moved to a private entity – they’re still protected by our Contract.

County Proposals

Over the last two bargaining sessions, Labor Relations has been coming to the table with a lot of proposals to maintain Current Contract Language (CCL). That means they want to keep the language as is in the Contract. Labor Relations (LR) has also opened Articles on their own. Some include minor changes to language, adding language we’ve already bargained for in Memorandums of Agreement and Expectations (MOA and MOE). 

However, as will be the case with all bargaining, some of what they proposed we disagree on – strongly. We’ll discuss those as a Team and with you in more detail when we make Counters. We won’t share details of minor proposed changes. 

The County has proposed CCL for: 

  • Article 4: Management Rights
  • Article 6: No Strike Lockout
  • Article 12: Workers Compensation and Supplemental Benefits
  • Article 16: Pensions
  • Article 19: Modification of Work Performed by the Bargaining Unit
  • Article 23: Personnel Rules and Records
  • Article 27: Savings Clause and Funding
  • Article 28: Entire Agreement

We TA’d only one of these – Article 27: Savings Clause and Funding

Non-CCL

  • Addendum K: Limited Duration Appointments
      • There were a lot of issues with their proposal that we’ll discuss in our Counter.
  • Article 10: Other Leaves
  • Article 12: Workers Compensation and Supplemental Benefits 
  • Article 17: Disciplinary Action
      • County proposed language that says regardless of a transfer, if you are under investigation it would follow an employee to their new position.
      • County proposed language to quicken their ability to start the Job Abandonment process. 
  • Article 5: Union Security
    • County proposed some concerning language to strictly limit the time stewards are allowed to do their job. 

County Counter-Proposals

  • Package (Article 2, Add. L and Add. E)
      • Overall, LR did not agree with many of the changes we proposed. 
      • The biggest ones being our ask for a six-month Initial Trial Service Period and our desire to more explicitly define types of employees – like folding in Temporary Employees to give them more benefits and protections. 
      • No word yet on mileage
  • Article 18: Settlement of Disputes
    • We proposed extending the grievance reporting timeline to 120 days – they countered with 90 days. 
    • They rejected our request to get rid of Section V: Unfair Labor Practices. 

The County’s Budget

Over the past three months, the Union has been carefully looking at the County’s budget forecast. Most recently, during last week’s session, the Bargaining Team asked questions about how the County’s budget is funded, how it’s maintained, and the policies that dictate how that money is allocated.

Our research department at AFSCME have been analyzing the County’s budget reporting and have a different take on what money is and isn’t available to ease the current financial situation. 

We believe that the County budget office’s presentation paints an incomplete and potentially misleading picture of the current fiscal situation. Because of this, it calls into question the need to layoff employees. 

These cuts are already severe on employees and the communities we serve. But will come down even harder on those historically marginalized and underserved – people the County claims to prioritize in their services. The socially liberal and fiscally conservative lines are starting to blur. 

The Chair says “[w]e focus on equity through every facet of our work, and will continue to do so.” However, there are huge inequities baked into the Chair’s budget guidance to Department Leaders and Elected Officials that contradict the County’s own values of Accountability, Equity and Inclusion. 

Unionized workers are the cornerstone of Oregon’s Public Sector operations – two-thirds of the Multnomah County staff are represented employees. We, as the Bargaining Team, also urge Chair Vega Pederson to do everything within her power to prevent these layoffs and hold true to the County’s Values. 

If you want to get involved in stopping these layoffs, here’s what you can do. Contact the Chair, contact your Commissioners, and attend Thursday Board Meetings. Share your story, and join us in protecting our coworkers’ jobs. 

In Solidarity, 

Your Bargaining Team

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