Laborers Local 483 proclaims ‘Zoolidarity’
in campaign for a better contract at Metro
Metro’s contract with
AFSCME Local 3580
has also expired
Laborers Local 483 is at odds with
the Metro regional government over a
new contract covering 500 workers at
the Oregon Zoo and Metro’s regional
parks and natural areas. Metro has in
mind several concessions, while Local
483 is pushing for a new minimum
hourly wage of $15 an hour — plus
new rights for hundreds of low-paid
“temps” who come back year after year
to work in zoo admissions and food
service.
The old contract expired June 30.
For the new one, Metro wants to in-
crease the employee share of health in-
surance premiums to 10 percent (up
from the current 6 percent). It also
wants to charge some zoo employees
$40 a month for parking, and it wants
to freeze wages for some workers.
Local 483 organizer Angela
MacWhinnie said the union is okay
with Metro’s latest overall wage pro-
posal — a 2.5 percent cost-of-living in-
crease this year, followed by annual
raises equal to the increase in the Con-
sumer Price Index (minimum 1.25 per-
cent and maximum 3.5 percent).
But Metro doesn’t want to give the
raises to workers it considers overpaid.
After a “market study,” Metro deter-
mined that about 16 zoo workers on the
litter patrol are overpaid at $9.88 an
hour. [Oregon minimum wage is $9.10
an hour.] Metro wants to freeze those
workers’ wages, and bring in new litter
crew members at $9.41.
Local 483 wants to go the opposite
direction: Its proposed $15-an-hour
minimum would mean raises for 330
workers. Most of those are temporary
workers in food service and zoo admis-
sions who successfully campaigned to
join the union last year.
“We want to focus on bringing the
bottom wage up so that these become
much better jobs,” MacWhinnie told
the Labor Press.
Local 483 also proposed that work-
ers get up to 40 hours a year of paid
sick days along the lines of the new
City of Portland ordinance, and Metro
has agreed to that, though at a slower
accrual rate than the one in the city or-
dinance. [The City’s sick leave ordi-
nance doesn’t apply to public employ-
ers.]
Lastly, Local 483 wants Metro to
give the “temporary” workers more
eral meetings. And on June 21, mem-
bers and supporters — including Port-
land Commissioner Amanda Fritz —
gathered outside the Oregon Zoo to
hand out stickers proclaiming “Zooli-
darity” with the logo of an animal paw
print in place of the traditional symbol
of the upraised fist. MacWhinnie said
over about three hours, they were able
to hand out the stickers to several thou-
sand zoo patrons. Managers told staff
to take them off in some areas.
MacWhinnie said the union expects to
protest that move by filing an unfair la-
bor practice charge with the Oregon
Employment Relations Board.
Though Metro labeled its June 23
proposal a “final offer,” the two sides
scheduled another bargaining session
for July 3, after this issue went to print.
Laborers Local 483 organizer Angela MacWhinnie and zoo admissions
worker Dana Carstensen greet visitors to the Oregon Zoo June 21 with a free
sticker proclaiming “Zoolidarity.” Almost everyone entering the zoo took a
sticker, and some learned a little about the Zoo’s workers and their union.
(Photo courtesy of Local 483.)
rights. The zoo staffs up with temps
during the warm months. They’re laid
off after they reach a 1,040 hour limit,
but are often rehired the following year.
Some have returned every year for over
a decade. Local 483 proposes that they
get full grievance rights after two con-
secutive years, and a seniority prefer-
ence for recall.
Local 483 has begun taking its mes-
sage to the public. Members have ad-
dressed the Metro Commission at sev-
Bargaining also continues between
Metro and AFSCME Local 3580,
which represents 308 workers, includ-
ing planners, engineers, scientists, se-
curity officers, and janitors under a
contract which also expired June 30.
Local 3580 President Matt Tracy, a
planner in Metro regional govern-
ment’s Sustainability Center, said the
two sides are not far apart, but health
care is the one challenging topic. Metro
wants to increase the employee share
of insurance premiums, and that’s after
having already eroded benefits in the
Kaiser Permanente health plan to make
employees pay more out-of-pocket
costs, says Oregon AFSCME staff rep-
resentative Jaime Sorenson.
Like Laborers Local 483, AFSCME
Local 3580 has also fought Metro’s use
of temps. Sorenson said union griev-
ances succeeded in converting some
temps to permanent positions, and
some part-time to full-time. But Metro
has resisted AFSCME contract propos-
als to rein in use of temps, Sorenson
said.
The two sides have several bargain-
ing sessions scheduled in July.
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NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
JULY 4, 2014