Bargaining Update #10

This week, we brought four proposals to the County – our biggest one being Compensation. 

Wages and COLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) are the number one issue employees are concerned about. No proposal is set in stone, and we will get counter offers that will try and stop this. We made a big swing, and we’re gonna need all of your help to keep this proposal strong like all the others.

For the first year of the contract, we proposed a flat wage increase of $11 an hour for all represented employees, bringing our lowest paid employees to a minimum of $31 an hour. By the end of the contract, that minimum could reach $35 an hour. 

It’s time to fight for all workers to earn a living wage. 

Our current contract’s COLA didn’t match the rate of COVID-era inflation, and represented employees have been working at an effective pay cut for years now. It’s been an issue since we bargained for it, and it’s on our team to correct it. 

You deserve to afford all your needs. No more skirting by paycheck to paycheck or budgeting down to the penny. No more people making high six figures trying to convince you taking a pay cut is the solution to the County’s financial problems. Rent is only getting more expensive – food, childcare, medications – all of it is getting more expensive. 

It’s time we stop working more for less. 

We deserve a living wage — and our Union will fight like hell to get it.

Action Items & Events

Let’s keep turning up the pressure! 

• Join us on May Day (5/1) from 11:30-1pm at the Multnomah Building for a worker celebration and show of power. Lunch provided! RSVP here!
• Sign our petition. Stop the Layoffs.
• Look at the MIT Living Wage Calculator and see your living wage estimate.
• And most importantly – share these updates. You’re allowed to talk about bargaining and other Union activities at work!

This Week’s Glossary

PIC: Person in Charge

KSA: Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

MOA: Memorandum of Agreement

WOC: Work Out of Class

Union Proposals:

• • Article 7: Holidays
    • Memorializing Indigenous Peoples Day in the contract as a floating holiday
    • Upping to 2 saved holidays to rollover into the new fiscal year
  • Article 8: Vacation
    • Adding more vacation time for employees with over 20 years of service.
    • Reinstated employees keep their same vacation tier if returning within 24 months.
    • Vacation hours lost while at your max accruals have the option to be donated to a Catastrophic Leave Fund. 
    • Reduce notification for Wellness Leave to 24 hours instead of 2 weeks.
    • Cash-Out Option: Let employees cash out unused vacation time if over 160 hours. 

• Article 13: Work Schedules

• • Lengthened the notice of mandatory schedule changes to 30 days (up from 15)
  • Increased pay after 5 days straight to double time (not time & a half)
  • Added Same Day Reassignment premium, a similar system is in the Pharmacist Unit’s Contract (Article 7.IV)
  • Making explicit that managers can’t force you to flex your time
  • Making the denial of alternative schedules Grievable 
  • Added that if you can’t work from home during a closure, you receive Admin Leave. 

County Proposals:

• Article 15: Job Profiles and Pay Ranges

• • New definitions for WOC assignments
    • Short-term WOC goes from 30 days to 90 days
    • Long-term WOC defined as 90 days to 6 months
  • Added a lot of language to align the contract with the Oregon Equal Pay Act
  • More language around “Limited Duration Assignments” they’ve proposed in other sessions
  • Changing notification and employee review of a new position description to be reviewed with your manager before considered officially complete, rather than the manager simply providing comment. 
  • Trial Service Periods
    • Reinstated employees who didn’t complete their initial trial service and employees reinstated to a different work unit will serve at minimum a 120 day “orientation period.”

• Counter – Article 20: Workload and Standards

• • • County did not agree to the following: 
      • Our assertion that it’s not their “right “ to establish workload for employees. 
      • Mandating 360 performance reviews of managers from their represented staff
      • Any language of notification, record or notice around non-disciplinary performance reviews.
    • They’ve made changes to our proposal making non-disciplinary performance reviews admissible in Arbitration hearings, but our language wasn’t outright denied.

• Counter – Addendum F: Library Services

• • Shift Bidding
    • County added language clarifying that the employee has to be qualified for the position, but excludes schedules that have PIC requirements and positions with a KSA.  This would memorialize past practice for KSAs and set precedence for PICs. This would let the Library set up 3 types of employees for shift bids – KSA, PIC, and everyone else. 
    • County wants to change language from an MOA to reflect from the first bidded shift rather than the first training shift or PIC shift, whichever is sooner. 
  • They rejected our language and wrote theirs (supposedly capturing current practices) for PICs.
  • Adding language that says PICs are primary responders if no one else is available.
    • A Primary Responder is “the individual responsible for leading security responses and delegating tasks as needed to help ensure safe outcomes.”

Questions? Comments? Email your Bargaining Team at bargaining@afscmelocal88.org! Follow us on Instagram and Facebook to stay up to date on all our Local’s news. 

We appreciate you reading, observing our bargaining sessions, and repping your green on Thursdays! Let’s stay strong and stay united!