Bargaining Update – October 6, 2025

Bargaining Update #34

CBA: collective bargaining agreement

AI: artificial intelligence

ADA: Americans with Disabilities Act

COLA: cost-of-living adjustment

KSA: knowledge, skills, and abilities (related to cultural and language premiums)

SAM: Stewards and Managers

MAT: Member Action Team

SNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program

PECBA: Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act

ERB: Employment Relations Board

County Proposals

Article 5: Union Security, Representation, and Business

  • We have been advocating for more equitable representation at the bargaining table by attempting to ensure that our Union can have the same amount of bargaining team members as the County. The County did not fully agree to this but we did win an increase from 10 bargaining team members to 12.
  • The County agreed to make a digital version of the finalized contract available within ten (10) days of ratification.
  • Our current Officer MOA language states that our Local 88 President is on full-time release paid by the County for their duration of office. The County has proposed splitting the cost of full-time release of our Local 88 President 50/50 with our Union. Our union has not paid for the President in several years, and this would be a huge expense for our union especially as we possibly lose members due to County cuts and layoffs.
  • The County rejected our proposal to give any amount of paid-release time to our Local 88 Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer though the current MOA language does. 
  • The County rejected our language stating that use of technology by the County should be done with participation and input from the Community of Practice for AI.

Article 7: Holidays

  • The County accepted our language that will ensure full time employees receive a full day off on an observed holiday, even when they have an irregular work schedule. 
  • The County declined to give part-time employees pay for their scheduled shift when it is greater than their prorated amount, even though they have corrected this inequity for all non-standard Full time schedules. 

Article 8: Vacation Leave

  • The County agreed to our language proposing that an employee who separates from County service and is rehired within twelve (12) months of their separation date will retain the vacation accrual rate they had at the time of separation. 
  • The County again declined to move unused vacation hours that are expiring to the Catastrophic Leave Fund. They suggested at the table that the Catastrophic Leave Fund personnel rule is in need of review and that our Union should bring forward revisions at that time.

Article 9: Sick Leave, Fitness for Duty, and Disability Insurance

  • The County rejected our proposal for any accrued leave being used as sick leave to be treated as “protected sick leave”. And they specifically called-out in their counterproposal that while an employee is allowed to use other accrued leave as sick leave, that does not exempt them from being disciplined for excessive absenteeism. 
  • The County added language clarifying what would be considered “separate events” for purposes of determining excessive absenteeism. 
  • The County rejected our language proposing that an employee be advised of all options for protected leave and the ADA reasonable accommodation process prior to being disciplined for excessive absenteeism.
  • The County rejected our proposal that an employee will not be considered for discipline of excessive absenteeism unless all accrued leave has already been utilized. 
  • The County has again proposed that a fitness for duty assessment be completed prior to engaging in the ADA reasonable accommodation process. 

Article 14: Compensation

  • The County has again proposed a 2.4% COLA and has failed to offer any alternative solutions to address our members’ concerns regarding unlivable wages and inequitable cost-of-living adjustments. 
    • The results from our Wage Survey show that members who filled out the survey overwhelmingly prefer either a flat-dollar increase for their COLA or whichever is the higher of a flat-dollar increase or a percentage.
  • The County did offer a counter to our proposal for Longevity Pay, offering Longevity Leave instead. If Longevity Leave is ratified in this contract, qualifying employees who have completed the required service period (15 years of continuous service) will receive a one time grant of 40 hours of longevity recognition leave, pro-rated by FTE. These members will have 2 years to use this leave or have it cashed out at their “current rate of pay”. If they separate from the County it will be cashed out in their final paycheck, at the time of separation.
  • The County accepted our increase for Bilingual and cultural-specific KSAs to 5% (from 4%). However, they have rejected our proposal to stack culturally-specific and/or bi-lingual KSA premiums.
  • The County accepted our proposal for employees to be able to request a culture or language KSA be added to their position if they feel they qualify, but the County declined to make approval or denial of the request subject to the grievance procedure.
  • The County agreed to our proposal for Operationally Essential employees to receive a saved holiday after working a certain amount of hours in a fiscal year, in addition to the twenty percent (20%) premium.
  • We had proposed increasing the reimbursement of an employee for maintaining licenses and certifications from $500 to $1500 biennially; the County met us halfway and offered $1000.
  • The County rejected our proposal for Training Pay, stating that employees are already expected to help with onboarding co-workers as part of their inherent job duties.                          

Union Proposals

Article 13: Work Schedules

  • We’re pretty close on this one. We reasserted that employees who have a same-day reassignment should be able to use work time to travel back to their originally assigned work location at the end of the day. We also maintained that reassignment to another worksite should be done to the satisfaction of the employee requesting reassignment. 

Article 18: Settlement of Disputes

  • We proposed increasing the deadline for filing non-disciplinary grievances to forty-five (45) days instead of thirty. 
  • We are standing by our proposal for stewards to be able to represent employees in their full capacity as stewards throughout the ADA reasonable accommodation process. 

Article 21: Seniority and Layoffs

  • We proposed that an employee on the Recall List be able to reject one (1) offer of recall to a position they qualify for before being removed from the Recall List. 

Article 25: Safety and Health

  • At this point, the only sticking point in this article is that our Union wants to have a meaningful ability to address our members’ concerns regarding unsafe staffing levels and unmanageable workloads. We have repeatedly proposed Joint Staffing Reviews between our Union and Labor Relations, and the County continues to assert that we can already share these concerns at SAM (Stewards and Managers) meetings. Any of our members who have participated in these SAM meetings will know that just being able to speak a concern into the universe doesn’t actually make change happen. We want to formalize a process for our Union to provide feedback and advocate for members’ concerns regarding staffing and workload so that we can be fully-prepared to address these concerns in future bargaining cycles. 

Addendum H: Drug and Alcohol Policy

  • We’re very close on this one as well. We had proposed that the County not be allowed to share information or evidence gathered while investigating or enforcing the drug and alcohol policy with outside law enforcement agencies unless required by law. The County has expressed concerns about this in the event that there was an urgent safety risk. We adjusted our language to indicate that the County could share this information with outside agencies only if required by law or if there is an imminent risk to public safety.

Action Items & Upcoming Events

Member Action Team Meeting

Monday, October 6th | 6:30 – 7:30pm, Join us tonight!

Our virtual MAT meeting is from 6:30 – 7:30pm on Monday, October 6th.  We will be discussing how we are continuing to grow our power, engage members, and build for a strike in order to win a fair contract. Going on strike is the ultimate tool in a Union’s kit for a fair contract, and being strike-ready is critical to our ability to hold-out against the County as we advocate for the issues of most importance to our members. Most Unions that vote to go on strike actually end up settling their CBA before they get to the picket line, because their employers know that they are a credible threat. Having a well-informed membership that is prepared and ready to go on strike is critical to our negotiating power at the table. If you are interested in joining the MAT or getting more involved in our campaign for a fair contract, contact the MAT team here.  

 

Upcoming Listening Sessions

Our bargaining team will be hosting several virtual listening sessions again over the next few weeks to receive member input on where we stand with bargaining right now. Dates and times for listening sessions will be available in next week’s web update.

Did You Know?

  • We had four members deliver testimony at the Multnomah County Board meeting on October 2nd regarding the need for safe staffing, a living wage, and Trauma Leave. You can rewatch the testimony on youtube; our members’ testimony ends around timestamp 16:20.

Update your Profile Images and backgrounds: One simple way to show your support for the best possible contract is to change your virtual meeting backgrounds and profile images. You can find instructions and lots of beautiful images to use here!

Follow Us on Social Media: Stay up to date on all the latest news by following AFSCME Local 88 on our Instagram and Local 88 Facebook!

In Solidarity, 

Your Bargaining Team

Questions? Email us at bargaining@afscmelocal88.org

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