Multnomah Education SD strike averted
A strike was averted, and nearly 400
union workers at Multnomah Education
Service District (MESD) got an agree-
ment they can probably live with —
thanks to the late-stage intervention of
several elected MESD Board members.
MESD is one of 20 special regional
education districts in Oregon, funded by
the state to help local school districts
with services like special education for
students with disabilities. Workers at
MESD, with offices in Northeast Port-
land, provide support services to seven
Portland-area school districts. Depend-
ing on their job title and experience,
they earn from $11 to $17 an hour and
average $26,000 a year. MESD work-
ers have long belonged to Local 1995
of American Federation of State,
County and Municipal Employees (AF-
SCME). Local 1995 was a sleepy affil-
iate of Oregon AFSCME until it came
alive in the last year in response to ag-
gressive management tactics.
In contract talks, MESD was repre-
sented by Salem attorney Bruce Zagar,
whose take-it-or-leave-it bargaining
style led to a strike in the Sandy, Ore.
school district last year. It was not clear
why a district which already has a su-
perintendent, an assistant superintend-
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ent, a head of human resources and an
in-house attorney felt the need to hire
Zagar. But hire him it did, and for over
a year, management offered a 1 percent
raise and demanded a change to the def-
inition of “full time” that would have re-
sulted in the loss of health coverage to
nearly half the bargaining unit.
The previous contract expired July
2005. MESD management wouldn't
change anything in the dollars-and-
cents part of its proposal, and insisted
that no deal could be struck on non-eco-
nomic issues until agreement was
reached on economics. That stance
changed when the two sides entered
mediation in March, but the two sides
still edged toward the brink.
On March 15, MESD sent a letter to
all workers saying it planned to impose
its offer on them whether the union
agreed or not. When the union began in-
formational picketing and threatening
to strike, MESD hired security guards,
confiscated the badges of union work-
ers, ran a help wanted ad for strike-
breakers in the March 19 Oregonian,
and told workers to take their personal
belongings home.
Those measures may have been
meant to intimidate, said Council 75
staff representative Issa Simpson, but
they ended up helping the unit get or-
ganized. Simpson said management's
conduct toward union members was so
disrespectful that by the end, even for-
merly apathetic union members wore
union T-shirts and buttons and voted for
strike authorization.
Union members and supporters
packed the MESD Board’s March 21
meeting and a rally just prior. Support-
ers included Oregon Labor Commis-
sioner Dan Gardner, Oregon State Sen-
ator Kurt Schrader and City of Portland
Commissioner Randy Leonard and a
group of pro-union demonstrators sum-
moned by Portland Jobs with Justice.
For weeks, union workers had made
impassioned appeals to the MESD
Board, which included former union
stalwart and Portland Jobs with Justice
staffperson Geri Washington.
Now a strike neared.
Board members Washington, Harry
Ainsworth, Ron Chinn and Ken Kissir
sat in on bargaining March 23, and the
management team changed its position
enough to win union agreement.
Union workers felt deserted by one
erstwhile ally on the board, however.
Sy Kornbrodt, an MESD board
member since 1996, is a former presi-
dent of AFSCME Local 1442, and a
current delegate to the Northwest Ore-
gon Labor Council. Kornbrodt ran for
MESD Board with the endorsement of
Oregon AFSCME. But as the MESD
dispute intensified and Local 1995
looked to the board for sympathy, Ko-
rnbrodt declared that he would recuse
himself from any union-related matters
because he felt a conflict of interest.
Kornbrodt’s position went well be-
yond any legal requirement, said AF-
SCME Council 75 spokesperson Don
Loving, who himself serves on the
Chehalem Park and Recreation District
in Newberg. Loving said Oregon law
requires only that officeholders publicly
announce that a conflict of interest ex-
ists before voting on matters in which
they have a direct financial stake.
“It would make little sense for us to
encourage our members and retirees to
get elected to such boards and commis-
sions if they had to turn around and ab-
stain every time a labor-related issue
came up,” Loving wrote in an e-mail to
Kornbrodt, a former probation officer.
The employer offer that ended the
dispute included two 2 percent raises,
and an agreement to increase employer
contributions to health coverage by 16
percent over the two years. That means
no additional out-of-pocket costs for
employees. And management took off
the table its plan to change the defini-
tion of full-time.
Workers will vote by mail on the
contract, and the result will be an-
nounced April 15.
Most contract resolutions include a
pledge to drop legal action, but this
time, Simpson said, the union will con-
tinue to pursue “unfair labor practice”
charges with the state labor board, the
better to restrain management behavior
next time around. Since it took a year to
bargain the two year deal, bargaining
will begin again in just over a year.
Simpson said the unit will leave its
strike planning committee in place.
Cafeteria workers at
Portland School District
declare impasse April 3
Nutrition Services workers at
Portland Public Schools delivered an
impasse notice to Superintendent
Vickie Phillips April 3 following
months of bargaining. The 262
school employees are represented by
Service Employees Local 503.
Negotiations have stalled over
wages and health care insurance.
“We earn 8 percent to 20 percent
less than our peers in other Portland
school districts,” said Deanna Gath-
man, a cook in the Dixon Street Ad-
ministrative offices. “With the pro-
posed increase in health insurance
premiums, we’re looking at a cut in
pay to continue doing our jobs.”
Vickie Fisher, who serves children
meals at Kellogg Middle School,
added, “We’re the lowest-paid work-
ers in the district. We’ve been in
limbo since our contract expired al-
most a year ago. There is definitely
an impasse. We hope this leads to a
fair contract.”
Contract negotiations began in
March 2005.
Both parties have seven days to
present the Oregon Employment Re-
lations Board and the other party with
its final offer. That begins a 30-day
“cooling-off” period. At the end of
the 30 days, the employer can either
implement its final proposal or the
workers can strike.
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APRIL 7, 2006
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