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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 7, 2007)
Inside MEETING NOTICES See Page 6 Volume 108 Number 23 December 7, 2007 Portland Portland school employees are Getting Restless Portland Public School employees, family, friends — and ATU’s Pepper the Greed-Fighting Possum, held a loud demonstration outside district headquarters Nov. 19 to let the school board know they are growing tired of stalled labor negotiations. Custodians, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, classified employees and teach- ers at Portland Public Schools held a loud demonstration at the district office Nov. 19 to draw attention to stalled la- bor negotiations. Nearly 200 workers, community al- lies and politicians rallied an hour be- fore a scheduled school board meeting. Afterwards, the group took their protest inside to the meeting, where they pleaded for a quick and equitable settle- ment in contract negotiations. Eighty-five special education school bus drivers represented by Amalga- mated Transit Union Local 757 have been working without a new contract since Jan. 1, 2006. Service Employees Local 503 is in stalled negotiations on behalf of 188 nutrition service workers. And 287 full-time and 17 part-time cus- todians represented by SEIU are trying to get a first contract after winning a lawsuit against the school district for privatizing their work four years ago. The cafeteria workers’ contract ex- pired June 30, 2007. Also expiring June 30 was the con- tract for 1,300 clerical workers, nurses and library and teacher assistants repre- sented by Portland Federation of Teach- ers and Classified Employees Local 111. They began bargaining in April. In June, the school district imple- mented a “last, best and final” offer to its maintenance crew, who had been working under terms of an old contract for more than a year. That group of more than 100 workers from a dozen different union locals bargains jointly as the District Council of Unions. A few months later workers ratified a four- year contract by a single vote. The deal contains two bonuses, a $779 cap on health insurance premiums, and raises of 3 percent over the life of the pact. “It’s the same tired story — do it all for less,” said ATU 757 President Jon Hunt. Drivers voted down a school district proposal Oct. 30. The sides now will enter mediation in January 2008. [Reg- ular school bus drivers work under a separate contract with First Student] ATU pulled out of the DCU after the last contract two years ago. “We took the bold move to leave the DCU because of our unique situation,” Hunt said. “And, if we need to strike — we are unified and ready to do so.” The unique situation Hunt spoke of involves state funding. For every $1 the school district pays to transport special education students, it is reimbursed 70 cents by the state. Ever since co-pay- ments for health insurance kicked in, the union has fought to reduce the out- of-pocket cost of drivers (who all work part-time) to the actual amount the school district pays on. Drivers earn be- tween $12.66 to $16.51 an hour, or about $13,000 a year. When adding in the cost of health insurance, these lower-paid, part-time workers shoulder the biggest burden. “It hits us harder because we’re be- ing asked to pay the same amount for our health coverage as someone who’s making $50,000, even $100,000 a year,” said bus driver Randy Shaw. (Turn to Page 10) Multnomah ESD classified staff go on strike Nov. 30 Following months of contentious bargaining, classi- fied staff at the Multnomah Education Service District went on strike Nov. 30. About 380 employees are members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1995. The two sides met with a state mediator for seven hours on Nov. 28, and for six-and- one-half hours on Dec. 3, but those sessions yielded lit- tle movement and no agreement. The current contract expired June 30 and MESD im- plemented its final offer Nov. 29. At press time, there were no talks scheduled. “We tried,” said Oregon AFSCME Public Affairs Di- rector Don Loving. “Typical of these entire negotia- tions, we sent five different proposals to MESD man- agement through the mediator. Their response was ‘no, no, no, no and no.’ ” AFSCME presented a sixth offer at the Dec. 3 medi- ation that Loving said would have brought the two sides to within $200,000 of an agreement. MESD rejected it, too. Leading up to the strike, Loving said the sides were apart by roughly $300,000 to $400,000. MESD main- tains it would cost another $1.4 million to meet the work- ers’ requests. MESD is represented at the bargaining table by Salem attorney Bruce Zagar. As reported previously in the Labor Press, Zagar has a reputation for a take-it-or- leave-it style. He represented the Oregon Trail School District in Sandy in 2005 and that resulted in a bitter month-long teacher’s strike there. Wages and benefits are the two major issues in the MESD dispute, with health insurance premium costs — particularly for MESD’s permanent 30-hour a week workers — a major sticking point. According to the union, most other ESDs — which are smaller and substantially less well-funded — con- sider permanent 30-hour-a-week-employees to be full- time when calculating health care benefits. Not Mult- nomah ESD. “This local includes many employees who work 30 hours a week, not by choice, but because that’s all the hours the district offers them,” Loving said. MESD is one of 20 special regional education dis- tricts in Oregon, funded by the state to help local school districts with services like special education for students with disabilities. The largest single group of MESD employees — about 175 — are educational assistants who work in classrooms with special needs students. Others provide technical support services, school health functions and Outdoor School to eight Multnomah County school districts, including Centennial, Corbett, David Douglas, Gresham-Barlow, Parkrose, Portland Public, Reynolds and Riverdale. Depending on their job title and experience, they earn from $11 to $17 an hour, and average $26,000 a year. “We have folks who spend half their take home pay on health care premiums,” Loving said. “The District has permanent employees on food stamps and other so- cial services. They should be embarrassed how they treat their employees.” On its Web site, MESD says its implemented con- tract “...is not subject to change in response to emo- tional or political tactics. Any monies redirected for a larger settlement would cause MESD to curtail critical services and cut jobs.” Loving noted that MESD has a $10 million unappro- priated fund balance that it carries each year. “This is not a matter of MESD being unable to afford a settle- ment,” he said. “They just don’t want to treat their em- ployees fairly.” Pickets went up at 7 a.m. Nov. 30 at the MESD ad- ministration building on Northeast Airport Way in Port- land. They later spread to other schools serviced by the District, such as Alpha High School in Gresham and the (Turn to Page 4) Shirley Currey of AFSCME #1995 walks picket line in front of MESD administration building in NE Portland.
