Bargaining Update – June 30, 2025

Bargaining Update #20

Glossary

TA: Tentative agreement

CCL: Current contract language

COLA: Cost of Living Adjustment 

ERB: Employee Relations Board

ERC: Employer Relations Committee

ADA: Americans with Disabilities Act

CBA: Collective bargaining agreement

PLO: Paid Leave Oregon

OSHA: Occupational Safety and Health Administration

MAT: Member Action Team

LERC: Labor Education and Research Center

We started our bargaining session with the County on Thursday by signing tentative agreements (TA) on maintaining current contract language (CCL) in:

  • Article 16 – Pensions
  • Article 17 – Disciplinary Action

Both sides presented two (2) counter-proposals.

Our current contract’s expiration date is June 30, 2025. Until our new contract is ratified, our current contract will remain in full force and effect. We have been hearing a lot of questions about when to expect a Cost of Living Increase (COLA); please keep in mind that our COLA is negotiated from contract to contract. We are actively having conversations with management about wages and we anticipate a counter from them over the next several sessions. A COLA will not be finalized until our new contract has been ratified; once the contract is ratified the negotiated COLA will be retroactive to July 1st, 2025. There are no tentative agreements related to compensation at this time.

County Proposals

    • Article 5: Union Security, Representation and Business  
  • Contract Negotiations
        • The County struck-out our language proposing that our Union’s negotiating team be allowed an equal number of team members to Management.
          • The County defended their stance against an equal number of bargaining team members for both sides, saying that they have dedicated note-takers and support persons on their team from the budget office that are not necessarily team members. However, even not counting these folks, they still have more members on their team. 
          • We believe equal representation is a matter of equity, capacity and fairness given that most of our team all have regular full time jobs in addition to their bargaining work while management has highly compensated HR professionals doing the work as a part of their job, not as additional work.
  • Employee Relations Committee Meetings
        • The County struck-out our proposed language that would increase the frequency of these meetings from quarterly to every-other-month. 
        • The County accepted our language proposing regularly-scheduled Labor Management meetings with our Union without a loss of pay for participating employees. 
  • Union Time Paid (County Paid Time)
        • The County backed down from their earlier proposal to limit Union Time Paid to one-quarter (¼) of an employee’s hours in a pay period.
  • Union Officers
      • The County rejected our proposed language outlining union-protected time for our President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer in their official duties as cabinet members. 
  • Article 18: Settlement of Disputes
  • Arbitration
        • The County rejected our proposed strike-out of language that limits an arbitrator’s decision within sixty (60) days prior to the date the grievance was first filed. 
  • Stewards
      • For the second time, the County rejected our addition of a steward’s right to represent employees through the reasonable accommodation process. 
        • The County defended their position by stating that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) isn’t outlined in the contract.
        • The ADA is a federal civil-rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities. 
        • Regardless of what is specifically outlined in our contract, it is a legally binding document that must adhere to all federal, state, and local laws. If state or local law is more prohibitive than federal law, then that’s the legal standard that is followed. 
          • Example: Federal law prohibits age discrimination against individuals over the age of forty (40), while Oregon law prohibits age discrimination against individuals over the age of eighteen (18); therefore our contract follows the more prohibitive state law.
        • The role of the steward is to ensure compliance with our CBA (collective bargaining agreement). We have heard from our members that the reasonable accommodation process at Multnomah County is failing them, and we want to make it clear to the County that our Union has the right to represent employees in reasonable accommodation meetings to ensure that our contract is being followed.

Union Counter Proposals 

  • Article 9: Sick Leave, Fitness for Duty, and Disability Insurance
  • Accrual
        • We proposed striking the condition that sick leave only be accrued for each County-paid hour. We want our members to continue accruing sick leave for any hour of paid-status, including when on Oregon Paid Leave or other non-County paid leaves.
  • Reporting of Sick Leave
        • We rejected the County’s language proposing a requirement for employees assigned to work in 24-7 operations to provide at least three (3) hours notice ahead of an absence.
  • Protected Sick Time
        • We proposed that ANY accrued time (vacation, holiday, etc.) that is being used as sick time be protected.
        • Per Multnomah County’s personnel rules, “employees must report for and remain at work in a physical and mental condition that enables them to perform their regular duties.” We proposed that employees prohibited by this personnel rule from reporting to work also be covered under protected time.
  • Verification of Use
        • We proposed language that would only allow the County to require written medical verification for an employee to receive sick leave if ALL of the below conditions are met:
          • Employee has missed work due to illness for more than three (3) consecutive days OR has requested sick leave that is scheduled to last more than three (3) consecutive days AND
          • The employee has exhausted all paid leave AND
          • The County can articulate reasonable cause to believe that misuse of sick leave has occurred. 
        • We proposed that prior to the County considering discipline of an employee for misuse of sick leave or excessive absenteeism the employee be offered a meeting with the presence of a steward and a representative from County benefits to fully explain all available options including a reasonable accommodation, PLO, etc.
  • Sequencing of Leaves
        • We proposed that an employee be allowed to determine the order in which they take paid or unpaid leave for illness or injury.
  • Continuous Leave
        • We proposed striking language that allows the County to require repeat medical examinations every thirty (30) days for an employee to remain on a continuous leave of absence for an illness or injury.
  • Fitness for Duty
        • We proposed language asserting the obligation of the County to exhaust all options to make a reasonable accommodation prior to assessing an employee’s fitness for duty.
  • Catastrophic Leave Program
      • We proposed that Catastrophic Leave be available for employees experiencing immigration or citizenship leave needs in addition to employees who are ill or injured and have exhausted all paid leave.
      • Our proposal includes a general Catastrophic Leave Bank that is available to all employees with a need, as well as maintaining the ability for employees to seek individual Catastrophic Leave donations. 
      • We proposed that sick leave may be donated to the Catastrophic Leave Program in addition to vacation, compensatory time, or holiday time.
  • Joint Staffing Reviews
        • We maintained our position that joint labor-management reviews of staffing levels be conducted annually to give our Union the opportunity to provide input and recommendations on how to meet our members’ needs for safe and healthy staffing while also meeting the business needs of the County.
  • Workload Considerations
        • We maintained our proposed language that the County acknowledge the harmful impacts of excessive workloads on employees and take proactive measures to mitigate them.
  • Refusal to Work

All of the above proposals are still in bargaining and do not have tentative agreements.

Did You Know? 

  • Per the ERB’s Dispute Resolution Process, a specific timeline must be followed before a Union is able to go on strike. 

We are here →* Direct Bargaining (minimum 150 days) ← We are here

July 27th will be our 150th day of direct bargaining.  *It is typical that we continue to bargain beyond the 150 days if both parties are continuing to work towards an agreement.

↓

Mediation (minimum 15 days)

↓

Impasse

↓

Final Offer and Costing

(within 7 days of impasse)

↓

30 days Cooling Off Period

  _____↓_____                                     

                                     ↓                     ↓

                                          Employer may              Union may Strike

                                    Implement Final Offer       (after 10 day notice) 

                                                              

Action Items & Events 

  • Blitz Update: Thank you to everyone across Multnomah County who participated in our outreach efforts! We had our team from AFSCME International and the sunshine in hand and were able to connect with and bring 46 non-dues paying members into membership! 
  • June 30th, 6:30-7:30pm: Come join our Virtual Member Action Team Meeting as we continue to organize for our worker’s rights and a fair contract. We need you! Our membership is only as strong as our engagement. 
  • July 6th, 3-6 pm: Join us for Solidarity Happy Hour at Baerlic Brewing, located at 2239 SE 11th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214. This event is organized by AFSCME’s OHSU workers in Local 328. These are fun, low-key opportunities to connect at Baerlic Brewery on every first Sunday of the month. The location is family-friendly, serves Ranch Pizza, and has a few arcade games.
  • August 1st-3rd: Sign-up for LERC Summer School in Eugene, OR! Our Local budgets for a certain number of members to attend this weekend-long event every year, and it’s a fantastic opportunity to build expertise, confidence, and solidarity with other labor organizers around the state. If you are scheduled to work on a day of LERC, you can receive Union time to attend the event. Meals and housing on campus is included for the weekend. Please sign up by 11:59pm on June 30th.

Our counters can be found in our published proposals folder for everyone to read in more detail. Please keep emailing the Bargaining Team at bargaining@afscmelocal88.org with your questions and concerns. If you want to watch us bargain, sign up to be a Bargaining Observer! Follow Local 88 on Instagram and Facebook and check out the AFSCME Local 88 website to stay up to date on all our Local’s news. 

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