How sick leave affects the building trades
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
Low-wage service sector workers
are the surest beneficiaries of the new
Portland ordinance mandating sick
leave. But the ordinance is creating a lit-
tle bit of heartburn among some build-
ing trades union leaders, who wonder
how the policy will apply to the high-
wage union construction sector.
The ordinance says employers with
at least six employees must offer paid
sick time to employees who work at
least 240 hours in a year (the equivalent
of six 40-hour weeks). Employees ac-
crue an hour of sick pay for every 30
hours worked, and may use up to 40
hours a year — though not during the
first 90 calendar days of employment.
But construction workers often work
for multiple employers in a year, on
projects that may last a few weeks or
months. Will each of those employers
have to keep track of sick pay — if a
worker stays more than 240 hours on a
construction site within Portland city
limits?
Sick leave ordinances in San Fran-
cisco and Seattle allow union workers
to waive their right to paid sick time in a
collective bargaining agreement. Port-
land City Council opted not to do that,
in part out of concern that unions in
some cases might have difficulty hold-
ing on to sick pay. In the janitorial and
grocery industries, for example, union
locals could find themselves facing
tremendous pressure to waive the right
to sick pay from giant national firms
that operate with slim profit margins
and cutthroat nonunion competition.
“People in collective bargaining
agreements need to be able to take time
off when they’re sick just as much as
people who are not,” said City Com-
missioner Amanda Fritz, who led pas-
sage of the ordinance. “Why would we
have a benefit that disadvantages union
members?”
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who is also president of the Columbia-
Pacific Building and Construction
Trades Council. “We’re very transitory.
If someone is sick for a length of time,
the employer is going to want to get
somebody else in to do the job. That is
our world. It’s not like an office setting.”
Some fears, at least, appear not to be
born out by a close reading of the ordi-
nance. For example, the idea that some-
one working for four employers in a
year could get four weeks of sick pay:
That would be nearly impossible at the
1-to-30 accrual rate, especially given
that workers aren’t entitled to take any
sick pay during the first 90 days they’re
employed, under the ordinance.
Others said employers might seek to
evade the sick pay requirement by lay-
ing workers off before they reach the
240 hour or 90-day thresholds, and ask-
ing the union to dispatch replacements.
Of course, to change out good workers
might seem like a lot of trouble to
achieve savings that by design could
never add more than one thirtieth (3.3
percent) to payroll costs.
But Russ Garnett, business manager
at Roofers Local 49, said even small
shifts can eliminate profit margins, in a
high-cost business where contractors
may rely on cost estimates to bid work a
year or two in advance.
“To secure work our contractors
must compete on every level on every
job with nonunion contractors,” Garnett
said.
Local union roofers make $28.03 an
hour plus $9.65 an hour in benefits,
enough that members can afford to eat a
day’s wage loss if they’re sick and don’t
go to work, Garnett said.
Fritz said she’s sympathetic to at
least one concern expressed by con-
struction unions — the hassle of having
to track which work is done in Portland
for purposes of calculating sick pay. But
the best solution for that, she argues, is
to pass a statewide sick pay standard.
“It’s important to look at the Port-
land ordinance as the first step in a
statewide effort,” said Oregon AFL-
CIO Legislative Director Elana Guiney.
The Oregon AFL-CIO is backing a
bill in the Legislature to mandate sick
leave statewide.
John Mohlis, executive secretary-
treasurer of the Oregon State Building
and Construction Trades Council, said
he’s working to find agreement on an
amendment to that bill, to address the
concerns of the building trades sector.
“Sick pay and vacation just don’t
work in the construction industry,”
Mohlis said. “It’s too transient of an in-
dustry.”
“We have [wage] rates negotiated
that are higher than they would be than
if you just worked for one employer all
the time. That higher wage makes up
for the fact that we don’t have sick pay
and we don’t have vacation pay.”
Once the Legislature wraps up, the
City attorney’s office will work out de-
tails of how the City of Portland will
implement its ordinance. That rule-
making process could lessen the con-
cerns of building trades unions, if the
rules spell out a way for employers to
certify that they already comply with
the sick pay requirement. Under the or-
dinance, employers that have sick leave
or paid time off policies that are as good
or better — and that can be used by
workers for the same purposes — don’t
have to come up with new policies:
They would be considered to be com-
plying with the ordinance.
Many building trades unions have
things like jointly-sponsored vacation
funds, to which employers contribute a
certain dollar amount per hour under
the collective bargaining agreement.
For example, contractors pay $1.20 an
hour into a vacation account when they
employ Sheet Metal Local 16 members,
who install HVAC systems for an
hourly wage of $36.23. If those funds
can be used when the worker or a fam-
ily member is sick or injured or for pre-
ventive medical care, that could satisfy
the City requirement and thus eliminate
the need to keep special records or
change the collective bargaining agree-
ment.
WANTED: ‘Tools of the Trade’ for labor history exhibit
VANCOUVER — The Southwest
Washington Central Labor Council is
teaming up with the Clark County His-
torical Museum and Washington State
University-Vancouver, to develop a
public exhibition on the history of the
Southwest Washington labor move-
ment.
The exhibit is tentatively titled,
“Tools of the Trade: A History of Labor
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The first draft of Portland’s sick
leave ordinance exempted employers
that use a union hiring hall — as long
as they have a clear paid time off policy
that’s equal to or better than the one
mandated in the ordinance and that can
be used for sick days. But that was
taken out from the final version. Com-
missioners decided they wanted a
“clean” ordinance, with few or no ex-
ceptions and carve-outs.
Though no union publicly opposed
the ordinance, concerns came up in half
a dozen conversations with local build-
ing trades union leaders.
Some didn’t like to see the City in-
tervening in what would be a manda-
tory subject of collective bargaining.
“It’s almost like the City is negotiat-
ing for us,” said Kevin Jensen, business
manager of Iron Workers Local 29.
Collective bargaining agreements
are the result of a give-and-take negoti-
ation, some said, and a new outside
mandate could upset that balance,
prompting employers to seek savings
elsewhere.
Others questioned whether members
would use such a benefit, or said the
idea of being paid for not working flies
in the face of a prized union ethic: eight
hours work for eight hours pay.
“Our whole job is to work ourselves
out of a job,” said Sheet Metal Workers
Local 16 business agent Willy Myers,
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in Southwest Washington.” Plans are to
open in July, prior to the convention of
the Washington State Labor Council
(WSLC), which is slated July 25-27 at
the Vancouver Hilton & Convention
Center.
The exhibit will run for approxi-
mately 18 months.
The labor council is planning an
open house at the museum during the
week of the WSLC convention.
The labor council says cash dona-
tions and historical memorabilia are still
needed.
“We need financial contributions to
help fund the exhibit and to comple-
ment grant funding,” said Roben White
of Painters Local 10. “We need histori-
cal items, memorabilia from your lo-
cals. These would be loaner items that
would be cataloged and given back
when the exhibit concludes.”
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
The labor council also is looking for
photographs, tools, ledger books, dues
books, scrapbooks, pins, banners, and
other memorabilia, as well as recom-
mendations of long-time members who
can be interviewed about the history of
their organizations and work in South-
west Washington.
Items are needed as soon as possible.
“Although once a stronghold of the
labor movement in Washington state,
many Clark County residents today do
not realize the significance of workers
and their unions in building the com-
munity and sustaining families for over
a century,” said the museum’s executive
director, Susan Tissot. “This exhibit
project will help document that hidden
history and showcase some of the arti-
facts, oral histories, and other materials
related to the labor movement and the
development of the work force in Clark
County.”
If you have memorabilia or a mem-
ber to refer for interview, contact Tissot
at 360-993-5679 or email her at tis-
sots@pacifier.com. Donations can be
made to:
Clark County Historical
Museum Labor Exhibit
Clark County Historical Museum,
1511 Main Street,
Vancouver, Wash., 98660
Northwest Oregon Labor Council
recognition dinner set for June 8
Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 8, when the Northwest Oregon Labor
Council hosts the 16th annual Labor Appreciation and Recognition Night.
This year’s dinner and awards ceremony, which serves as a fundraiser for La-
bor’s Community Service Agency, will be held at Milwaukie Elks Lodge, 13121
SE McLoughlin Blvd. Dinner tickets are $20 per person. Raffle tickets also will be
sold for $1 each or seven for $5.
The labor council is accepting cash and prize donations for the raffle.
Through May 3, the labor council also will be accepting nominations for per-
sons to be recognized for their service to and with the labor community. Nomina-
tions also are open for the Del Ricks Community Service Award, recognizing one
individual for their exemplary service to labor and the community at-large.
Nominations should be sent to: Northwest Oregon Labor Council, 3645 SE
32nd Avenue, Portland, Oregon, 97202-3019.
For more information or to order tickets, call 503-235-9444.
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