Enjoy Your Labor Day Weekend, You’ve Earned It!
The Pacific Northwest Iron
Workers District Council
and
Affiliated Local Unions
Iron Workers Local 14, Spokane,WA.
Iron Workers Local 29, Portland, OR.
Iron Workers Local 86, Seattle,WA.
Iron Workers Local 751, Anchorage, AK.
Iron Workers Local 506, Seattle,WA.
Iron Workers Local 516, Portland, OR.
We Honor All the Working Men and Women on Labor Day.
We wish the working families of Oregon
and Washington a very special Labor Day .
CWA Local 7901 reaches
stalemate at credit union
Members of Portland-based Com-
munications Workers of America
(CWA) Local 7901 have reached a
stalemate at Unitus Community
Credit Union.
In meetings the first week of Au-
gust, workers voted 3-to-1 to reject
management’s final union contract
proposal. A contract extension expired
July 20 and Unitus has stopped col-
lecting union dues.
Unitus, which used to be Oregon
Telephone Employees Credit Union,
now is a community credit union for
anyone in Multnomah, Washington,
Clackamas, Marion, Polk, Yamhill
and Clark counties. Its 75 union em-
ployees serve 60,000 member-deposi-
tors; Local 7901 has deposits there,
and so does the Oregon AFL-CIO.
The key issue dividing the two
sides is merit pay.
Local 7901 President Madelyn El-
der says it’s a core union principle to
oppose pay systems that give all the
discretion to management to decide
whether and how much an employee
should earn. Unitus has proposed
scrapping the existing pay-step sched-
ule and replacing it with a set-up
based on a market survey conducted
by a consulting firm. According to the
survey, most Unitus employees are
paid more than the “market” rate in
the banking sector.
“And they’re saying they’re doing
us a favor because they’re not going to
cut anybody’s salary who’s above the
market,” Elder said.
Instead, the credit union’s manage-
ment proposes a wage freeze for em-
ployees earning above-market wages,
except for individualized merit
bonuses — and a cost-of-living in-
crease, which management wants to
call a “market adjustment.”
The current union scale tops out at
$14.37 an hour, plus $6.82 an hour for
benefits. Benefits include the fully-
paid employee-only health insurance
and 70 percent of the premium for
family coverage; a 401(k) match; and
six months short-term disability pay.
Unitus employees are better paid
than other financial service workers,
Elder said.
But then, that’s much of the point
of unionizing to begin with. In an
overwhelmingly nonunion industry
like banking, the “market” rate that
the consultant reports for wages and
benefits is the result of thousands of
individual wage negotiations with em-
ployers — in which management
overwhelmingly has the upper hand.
By belonging to a union, Unitus
employees are saying they want to opt
out of bargaining alone; they want to
bargain collectively. So for manage-
ment to insist on paying the “market
rate” is like saying “you can’t get a
better deal with a union than you can
get on your own.”
It’s psychological warfare, with the
goal of union-busting, and Elder said
it’s taking a toll on morale.
“Some people are so disgusted
they’re quitting,” Elder said.
Local 7901 has filed several unfair
labor practice charges with the Na-
tional Labor Relations Board. And El-
der said the union plans to take their
case to the public.
Labor Day
Greetings
From the Staff of
Masonry Industry Trust
Administration Inc.
Administrators for Masonry Industry Trust Funds, Cement Masons - Employers
Trust Funds and Construction Industry Drug-Free Workplace Program
9848 E. Burnside
Portland, Oregon 97216
PAGE 18
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
503-254-4022
Toll Free 1-800-591-8326
AUGUST 17, 2007