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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 2007)
Maintenance crew at Portland Schools votes to strike Members of the 14-union DCU have been working without a new contract since Dec. 31, 2005 A bargaining group of 119 skilled trades workers at Portland Public Schools (PPS) may be on the verge of a strike after years of contract stonewalling by the district. At an April 26 meeting attended by nearly the entire unit, members of the District Council of Unions (DCU) re- jected the district’s final contract pro- posal by a margin of 80 percent, and by a similar margin gave the bargain- ing committee the power to call a strike. No further bargaining sessions are scheduled. “We’re done,” said Jerry Moss, Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 repre- sentative and spokesman for the DCU. With the two sides at impasse, the district may move to impose its contract offer without the consent of union members. Members have been working under the terms of their previous con- tract since it expired Jan. 1, 2006. That contract — signed just weeks before its term ended — contained no wage in- creases. Nor are there any raises in the district’s current offer, which also would reduce the number of paid holi- days from 11 to nine, increase out-of- pocket health care costs for employees, and do away with employer-paid retiree health coverage by 2013. Moss said the district’s approach to bargaining was to present its offer, and never change its position in a year of meetings. “If this is the offer you’re gonna make from day one and you never budge,” Moss said, “how do you call that bargaining?” The DCU plans to file an unfair labor practice charge with the Oregon Employment Rela- tions Board. The DCU includes Teamsters, Ma- chinists and 12 building trades unions. A skilled force that once numbered 400 to 500 members, it’s now a skele- ton crew too stretched putting out fires to do preventive maintenance, said Nurse staffing forum set May 31 at PCC Cascade Campus A community forum on safe registered nurse staffing will be held Thursday, May 31, at 7 p.m. at the Portland Community College Cascade Campus, 705 N. Killingsworth St., Portland. The forum is co-sponsored by Jobs with Justice Workers’ Rights Board, the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Care Professionals Local 5017, an affili- ate of the American Federation of Teachers, and the United Nurses of Legacy. Registered nurses from the Legacy Health System will share their experiences on understaffing at the chain of Legacy hospitals in the Portland metropolitan area. Some 2,000 nurses have been trying to form a union at Legacy for nearly two years. The community forum also will include a Workers’ Rights Board hearing. This is a public forum where workers can bring complaints against employers for vio- lating their human and legal rights in the workplace. The Board is drawn from a broad spectrum of community leaders and can intervene with employers and the public to help resolve situations that threaten workers’ rights. Everyone is invited to attend. For more information, call Matthew Rae at 503-358-3016. Scott Lucy, a business rep for Machin- ists District Lodge 24. Meanwhile, two unions that used to belong to the DCU have left to go it alone. Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757, which represents about 85 school bus drivers, decided earlier this year to bargain separately. School bus opera- tions have a separate state funding source, explained Local 757 President Jon Hunt, and bus drivers aren’t year- round employees like most DCU members. But Hunt says so far, bar- gaining solo hasn’t produced any dif- ferent result. PPS’s proposal and bar- gaining posture are identical, down to the amount they’re willing to con- tribute to health benefits — $779 a month, $15 more than its current cap. The other union to leave the DCU is a section the Portland Federation of Teachers and Classified Employees Local 111 (campus monitors, occupa- tional and physical therapists and com- munity agents). Those employees were transferred into the major PFTCE contract, which expires on June 30. Bargaining with the district began April 19. Union leaders had hoped the dis- trict’s decision at the beginning of the year to hire Tom Gunn — a former union-side negotiator — meant it was ready to soften its stance. But Moss and Hunt say they’ve found Gunn to be a kinder, gentler conduit for the same “take it or leave it” message. Gunn, for his part, faulted the DCU for rejecting an offer of mediation, and said it’s not true that the district’s final offer was no different than its initial proposal. 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And we’re telling them back.” Every time DCU leaders have reached out to the School Board, Moss said they’re told to deal directly with the negotiators. Moss doesn’t think it’s Gunn who’s calling the shots. “I think there’s a group of people, at upper administrative levels, that is convinced they can push [the DCU] wherever they want.” After impasse, the law requires a 30-day cooling-off period, after which the bargaining team can call a strike. Moss said he’s never been this frus- trated with a negotiation, and in10 years of bargaining contracts for Plumbers and Fitters Local 290, never before called for strike authorization. For DCU members, the sticking points are the wage freeze and elimi- nation of retiree health coverage. Almost one in five DCU members are eligible for retirement as of this year. 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