Inside
MEETING
NOTICES
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Volume 115
Number 2
January 17, 2014
Portland
City of Portland reaches tentative deal with unions
A week after the City of Portland surprised the District
Council of Trade Unions (DCTU) by declaring impasse in
bargaining, union leaders agreed to submit a modified City
proposal for a new four-year contract to a vote of members.
The two sides had been negotiating a new union contract
for 1,600 City workers since February 2013, but had not met
formally since a Nov. 26 session with a mediator. In Decem-
ber, DCTU Chief Negotiator Rob Wheaton and DCTU Presi-
dent Cherry Harris approached City HR Director Anna Kan-
wit informally to see if they could break the logjam and work
out a deal.
But DCTU — a seven-union coalition of unions that bar-
gain jointly with the City — balked at the City’s insistence on
removing obstacles to outsourcing members’ work.
DCTU represents 1,600 City workers in water, roads,
sewer, parks, and other bureaus. They are members of Meri-
can Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) Local 189, Laborers Local 483, International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 48, Ma-
chinists District W24, Operating Engineers Local 701,
Plumbers and Fitters Local 290, and Painters and Allied
Trades District Council 5. Their previous contract expired
June 30, 2013.
That contract has for decades had a clause known as Arti-
cle 6, which says “work which is performed by bargaining
unit employees shall not be contracted out until the City indi-
cates that the contracting out will result in reduced costs.”
And those money savings can’t come from slashing worker
wages and benefits. The City was twice caught violating that
requirement in recent years, and initially sought to eliminate
it.
The City declared impasse on Jan. 6, and five days later,
revised its proposal on contracting out. The new City pro-
posal, part of the contract offer members will vote on, says
“the City reserves the right to have the work performed by
third parties where there is a cost savings; increased efficien-
cies; an emergency; a statutory requirement; extreme risk; a
lack of proper equipment, materials, or skills; Capital Im-
provement Projects; work that is covered by a warrantee;
work that is proprietary; urgent work; limited work; and work
that occurs during a peak load.” Each of those terms is de-
fined.
Wheaton said the City proposal on contracting out would
be easier for City managers to comply with than the current
contract language.
The proposed contract also contains across-the-board
raises: 0.9 percent retroactive to Aug. 29, 2013, followed by
three annual raises equal to the increase in the Consumer
Price Index each July 1, with a minimum of 1 percent and a
maximum of 5 percent.
The DCTU will hold a forum at Benson High School Jan.
23 from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. for members to discuss the contract
offer and next steps. Each union will conduct a ratification
vote in the coming weeks. If a majority of DCTU members
approve the contract, it will go to City Council for ratifica-
tion.
M777X-tortion?
SEATTLE, Wash. — After a high-pressure
campaign from pension-holding politicians, Boe-
ing executives, and international union leaders,
more than 32,000 rank-and-file union Machinists
who work for Boeing in the Puget Sound area, in
Gresham, Oregon, and in Wichita, Kansas, nar-
rowly approved an eight-year contract extension
that will eliminate their defined benefit pension
plan starting in September 2016 — when the cur-
rent contract expires.
The contract vote held Jan. 3 passed by roughly
600 votes — 51 percent to 49 percent.
It was the second contract Boeing presented to
workers in less than two months — both under
threat of moving production of its new 777X air-
liner out of Washington if not ratified. In ex-
change for keeping the jobs in-state, Boeing de-
manded that workers give up their traditional
pension plan, pay more out-of-pocket for health
insurance, and limit future wage growth.
As the Los Angeles Times reported, the con-
tract was negotiated not with a struggling manu-
facturer, “but with a company that delivered a
record 648 planes last year and whose shares
traded at all-time highs on the New York Stock
Exchange.”
Machinists rejected the first proposal by a 2-
to-1 ratio. That vote was held Nov. 13 with a
record turnout reported.
The second vote on Jan. 3 drew several thou-
sand fewer voters and passed by the narrowest of
margins.
Members of Gladstone-based Machinists
Lodge 63 rejected the second proposal by roughly
the same 2-to-1 margin they did in November,
though approximately 200 fewer votes were cast.
Lodge 63 represents 1,194 members at the Boeing
parts plant in Gresham.
Connie Kelliher, communications director for
District Lodge 751 in Everett, Washington, said
Boeing was in its annual end-of-the-year holiday
shutdown and many workers were on vacation
when the announcement was made that a second
vote would take place.
“There was about seven to eight thousand
members that didn’t vote on it and it was such a
slim margin — 300 votes either way would have
changed it,” Kelliher told Workers Independent
News. “That means that about 37.5 percent of the
members actually got to decide the fate for the
next 10 years, which erases 78 years of collective
bargaining history.”
According to documents obtained by the La-
bor Press, on Dec. 9, Boeing requested to meet
with the union to talk about the Nov. 13 election.
The sides met on Dec. 10 and again on Dec. 12,
which resulted in a new contract proposal with
amended terms. On top of a previously offered
$10,000 ratification bonus, Boeing added a
$5,000 bonus payable in 2020. The company
tacked on additional dental benefits of $500 per
person starting in 2020, and another $500 per per-
son starting in 2024. Boeing also withdrew its de-
mand to slow the wage progression for new hires.
The offer reverted to the status quo, which is that
new hires can reach the top of the pay scale in
six years.
“Every other item was exactly the same as the
offer you rejected Nov. 13,” Tom Wroblewski,
president and directing business representative of
District Lodge 751, posted on the union’s web-
site.
Wroblewski and Lodge 751’s leadership team
refused to present the offer to members, insisting
there weren’t enough substantial changes to war-
rant another vote.
Several Washington politicians, including Gov.
Jay Inslee and U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, criticized
Wroblewski for not voting the contract proposal.
On Dec. 20, International Association of Ma-
chinists and Aerospace President Thomas Buffen-
barger stepped in. He ordered a new vote on the
revised proposal and set the election for Jan. 3.
In a Dec. 26 letter to Boeing workers, Buffen-
barger said he took the action based on the large
number of members who contacted him request-
ing a vote on the revised offer. Buffenbarger wrote
(Turn to Page 7)