Inside
MEETING NO TICES
See
Page 6
V olume 107
Number 13
J uly 7, 2006
P ortland
3 bargaining units
settle contracts at
Portland Schools
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Oregon’s largest school district ap-
pears to be backing away from open
warfare with its unions.
Portland Public Schools (PPS) has
different management this year than it
had during earlier rounds of contract
talks, and seems to have adopted a less
hard-line stance. Still, the district’s
three contract settlements in June look
less like declarations of love than tem-
porary truces between adversaries.
The district’s 47,000 students are
taught by 3,800 teachers, who are rep-
resented by the Portland Association
of Teachers, an affiliate of the Oregon
Education Association. Their new con-
tract basically keeps the status quo for
the next two years. Ratified June 14, it
gives them two 2.5 percent cost-of-liv-
ing raises. Teacher salaries range from
roughly $34,000 to $67,000, depend-
ing on experience and educational
qualifications.
The contract also maintains teach-
ers’ existing health and other benefits.
Since 2003, PPS and PAT have
worked to contain health care costs. As
a result, the District’s monthly contri-
bution per teacher decreased from
$930.42 to $829.52. At the same time,
the teachers’ monthly premium con-
tribution, which began in 2004, is now
at $75.96 a month. The new contract
runs through June 30, 2008.
PPS management had wanted to
rewrite rules governing teacher hiring,
assignments and transfers, but agreed
instead to form a committee to look at
changes. If representatives from both
sides find changes to agree on, they’d
be referred to teachers for a vote.
In a press statement, PPS Board
Co-chair David Wynde said the agree-
ment “reflects the greatly improved re-
lationship between the school district
and our teachers.”
But teachers are likely to notice and
remember that three of the seven
Board members voted against the con-
tract — and argued that the district
should have trimmed teacher health
benefits, echoing a position pushed by
some Portland business leaders. The
three voting against the contract were
Dan Ryan, Sonja Henning, and Board
co-chair Bobbi Regan. For Ryan and
Henning to take that stance surprised
PAT President Ann Nice, given that
PAT had backed them in the 2005
election.
The district’s 210 cafeteria workers,
represented by Service Employees Lo-
cal 503, also ratified a new contract in
June. The contract sets up a two-tier
benefit system: Newly-hired part-time
workers, if any, will get no health ben-
efits, while current part-timers get pro-
rated benefits as before.
“It was rammed down our throats,”
SEIU negotiator Lane Toensmeier said
of the two-tier benefits proposal.
“Loss of part timers’ health insurance
is huge, and our members know that.”
Full-time cafeteria workers — de-
fined as 30 hours a week or more —
will continue to get full family health
benefits, with the employer contribu-
tion cap raised from its current $764 a
month to $779. The contract also con-
tains two 3 percent wage increases,
one of which is retroactive. The group
had been without a contract for nearly
a year, so the new two-year deal goes
to June 30, 2007. Pay for this group of
workers ranges from $9 to $13 an
hour. PPS’ Nutrition Services is a self -
supporting department that collects
federal funds and student lunch money
of about $2 per meal to feed over
20,000 students a day.
The union had wanted protection
against contracting out cafeteria work
to private companies. “No,” was the
district’s answer.
The third group to reach agreement
in June consisted of 1,300 clerical
workers, nurses and library and
teacher assistants represented by Port-
land Federation of Teachers and Clas-
sified Employees Local 111, an affili-
ate of the American Federation of
Teachers-Oregon. Their contract con-
tained two 1.5 percent increases, one
of them retroactive, meaning their
June check will contain a $200 to
(Turn to Page 10)
Re-hired on Wednesday
On strike by Friday
Nine months after he was fired for union
activity, a settlement brokered by the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board returned Cliff
Puckett to a job as a carpenter on the Benson
Tower construction project in downtown
Portland.
That was Wednesday, June 28.
Two days later, he was out again — on a one-man un-
fair labor practice strike against his employer, Newway
Forming.
Joined by organizers and out-of-work members of the
Carpenters Union, Puckett’s picket called Newway unfair,
because it was clear that the company wasn’t going to let
him back to work like an ordinary member of the crew —
making concrete forms at the high-rise condo project.
Instead, Puckett was a marked man, segregated from
co-workers, working directly with a supervisor in another
part of the building.
But then Puckett, 28, wasn’t a typical employee. He’s a
member of Carpenters Local 1388, and a paid organizer
with the Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters.
At Newway, he’s a “salt,” union jargon for someone
who gets a job at a company with the intent of promoting
the union to work crews.
When he applied, Puckett didn’t hide the fact that
he was a union carpenter. So why did Newway hire
him? Newway manager Mark Vanlanderzele de-
clined to speak with the Labor Press, but Puckett
thinks it’s not uncommon for union carpenters to
work nonunion, in violation of union rules. If so,
(Turn to Page 9)