AFSCME files for union election at PDC
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never seen the Oregonian editorialize
against workers who are trying to join
a union,” Allen said at the Feb. 23 Ex-
ecutive Board meeting of the Oregon
AFL-CIO. “I think this type of edito-
rial against workers sends a new mes-
sage in our community. The Oregon-
ian needs to stay out of our business.”
Allen said he plans to put together a
coalition of labor leaders to meet with
the newspaper’s editorial board to dis-
cuss their position.
At the monthly PDC commission-
ers’ meeting on Feb. 28, newly-ap-
pointed Commissioner John Mohlis
asked that the administration and man-
agement remain neutral until an elec-
tion is held. Mohlis, executive secre-
tary-treasurer of the Columbia-Pacific
Building and Construction Trades
Council, said PDC staffers have con-
tacted him and other commissioners
asking for a commitment to neutrality.
A flier produced by a core group of
union supporters lists several reasons
why PDC staffers should vote for the
union. The list included: no cost-of-
living increase in over eight years; no
legitimate grievance procedure; vin-
dictive and retaliatory managers and
supervisors; unjust discipline; lack of
promotional consideration; humiliat-
ing, disrespectful and hostile supervi-
sion; wages that lag behind compara-
ble city and open market positions;
personnel policies that are ignored; ex-
cessive overtime without benefit of an
agency-wide time policy for exempt
non-supervisory employees; minority
employees feeling disrespected and
unvalued; and more.
PDC’s annual budget of more than
$200 million is funded by tax dollars.
For years it operated under the radar,
with little public scrutiny. Its former
executive director and commission
chair were under fire for allowing no-
bid contracts to friends, inside deals
with staffers and contractors, and lav-
ish spending on meals and alcohol. Its
free-spending drew the attention of the
Portland City Club, which in 2005 re-
leased a scathing report questioning
PDC’s lack of public accountability.
After Potter was elected mayor, he
vowed to make the agency “more
transparent.” He brought in Warner
and appointed a new commission.
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union. “We’d prefer to deal with em-
ployees on a one-on-one basis,” he
said.
And, not three days after word got
out about the union organizing cam-
paign, the nonunion Oregonian news-
paper — a staunch supporter of the
PDC — weighed-in with a blistering
editorial against unionization.
The editorial and Warner’s com-
ments prompted Portland City Com-
missioner Randy Leonard to write a
letter to the PDC director asking that
he post a notice to all employees ac-
knowledging their right to organize
and pledging that the administration
will remain neutral during the cam-
paign.
Leonard and colleague Erik Sten
also drafted a resolution supporting
PDC staffers’ efforts to organize. The
Portland City Council passed that res-
olution unanimously on Feb. 21.
“I am heartened that the Portland
City Council has spoken unanimously
in support of PDC employees’ right to
organize,” said Leonard, a former
president of Fire Fighters Local 43. “I
hope that the PDC management will
choose to embrace the organizing ef-
forts of their workers rather than fear
them.”
Oregon AFSCME Executive Direc-
tor Ken Allen penned a response to the
Oregonian editorial, but was told it
wouldn’t be printed.
“In my 20-plus years here, I’ve
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Non-supervisory employees at the
Portland Development Commission
took a step closer to forming a union
Feb. 23 when representatives from
Oregon Council 75 of the American
Federation of State, County and Mu-
nicipal Employees filed for an election
with the Oregon Employment Rela-
tions Board.
For the past two months organizers
have quietly been meeting with PDC
employees. The agency is the quasi-
public development arm for the City of
Portland. Its executive director is
Bruce Warner, a former Oregon De-
partment of Transportation bureaucrat
who was appointed to the post a year-
and-a-half ago by Mayor Tom Potter.
“A group of employees from PDC
came to us in December, and it’s just
snow-balled from there,” said Organiz-
ing Director Sue Lee-Allen.
Lee-Allen told the Northwest La-
bor Press that a majority of the 132
non-supervisory employees have
signed union authorization cards.
“This is a highly-educated, highly-
skilled level of folks who like every-
one else want to be treated with fair-
ness and respect at work,” Lee-Allen
said.
All PDC employees are considered
“at will” employees and can be fired
without cause.
Lee-Allen said it is one of the most
fearful groups of employees she’s
dealt with in more than a decade of or-
ganizing. “The level of fear here is
pretty pervasive,” she said. “They’ve
worked at PDC for a long time, and
they’ve just had enough with the way
they’ve been treated by some man-
agers.”
An election won’t take place for an-
other eight to 12 weeks, which is wor-
risome, Lee Allen said, because union
organizers know that leaves a lot of
time for management to try to dis-
suade workers from joining.
State law prohibits employers from
interfering with employees trying to
organize a union. Warner has told re-
porters his agency will stay neutral.
However, Warner reportedly told
staffers that he personally opposes the
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