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March 6, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
City of Portland passes $15 minimum for its contracted service workers
Portland City Council voted
Feb. 18 to approve a $15-an-
hour minimum wage for about
150 janitors, security guards,
and parking lot attendants at
city-owned facilities. That
makes the City the third local
government body in Oregon to
set a $15 wage floor for at least
some workers, following the
Home Forward housing agency
and Multnomah County.
The resolution — approved
unanimously by City Council
— is an update to the City’s Fair
Wage policy, a 19-year-old ordi-
nance setting minimum wage
and benefit levels for workers at
certain city service contractors.
The levels are currently $10.38
an hour plus $1.92 an hour for
benefits. The newly passed res-
olution raises the hourly wage to
$15 as of July 1, 2015.
The resolution also sets a $15
minimum for the City’s own
employees who are in full-time,
budgeted positions, though less
than two dozen currently make
less than that.
The Portland Bureau of Parks
and Recreation, however, has
hundreds of part-time, seasonal,
and temporary workers who are
not covered by the new $15
minimum. Workers there are
represented by Laborers Local
483.
To address that, the resolution
authorizes a task force with
members appointed by the
mayor and each commissioner
to “assess seasonal, recreational
and apprenticeship work with
appropriate compensation.” The
task force is supposed to com-
plete its work in time for the
Teamsters ratify 4-
year contract at AMR
Members of Teamsters Portland
Local 223 and Vancouver Local
58 ratified a new four-year col-
lective bargaining agreement at
American Medical Response
(AMR). The 450-mem- ber bar-
gaining unit provides ambulance
service to Multnomah and
Clackamas counties in Oregon,
and Clark and Cowlitz counties
in Washington.
The agreement is retroactive
to July 1, 2014, when the old
pact expired. The new pact runs
through June 30, 2018.
Local 223 union rep Dave
Tully said the contract preserves
health care benefits and cost-of-
living wage increases.
AMR has been union since
1989.
City Council to use the recom-
mendations in the 2016-2017
budget process.
The $15 minimum resolution
was sponsored by Commis-
sioner Dan Saltzman, and co-
sponsored by Mayor Charlie
Hales.
Laborers Local 483, Service
Employees Local 49 and other
groups have campaigned in sup-
port of the ordinance.