Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 7, 2015)
PAGE 4 | August 7, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS AFSCME, state of Oregon reach tentative agreement The union negotiating team (from left to right) IBEW International Rep David Myers; Administrative Assistant Kristi Straight; Siemens workers Nick Reed and Nick Miles; Local 48 rep Ray Lister; Siemens employee Chris Lap; Local 48 rep Scott Zadow; Siemens worker Greg Norman; and IBEW International Rep Rick Hite. Workers join IBEW Local 48 At Siemens, solidarity got the goods By Don McIntosh Associate Editor What can 20 workers spread over four states do to improve working conditions at a massive multina- tional? Maybe not much, on their own. But boosted by union broth- ers and sisters, a group of North- west medical imaging technicians joined the International Brother- hood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 48 and got a first contract with big gains. The workers maintain and re- pair MRI and CAT scan ma- chines in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana for Siemens Medical Services USA, a sub- sidiary of the German conglom- erate Siemens. Salaries for the highly-skilled work ranged from $44,000 to $112,000 a year, but workers wanted less arbitrary pay, more job security, and other improvements. With a little sol- idarity, they got those things. Solidarity is the trade union principle of groups of workers supporting each other—stand- ing strong together. First, international solidarity helped the Siemens techs get a union: One day after a Siemens board member from the German union IG Metall complained, the company dropped a legal objection that was delaying a union election, and the workers voted 13 to 6 to unionize. Then, in June, regional soli- darity unclogged first-contract talks that were slowing to a crawl—letters from labor organ- izations made the difference, IBEW Local 48 organizer Ray Lister explains. It took six years—and the de- feat of an effort to vote out the union—before a similar Sie- mens tech group in Boston got its first union contract. Bargain- ing for the Northwest group got off to a good start, Lister says, but bogged down after eight months when the two sides started talking about economic issues. Local 48 reached out to other labor organizations, and got letters of support from the Oregon AFL-CIO, Idaho AFL- CIO, Montana AFL-CIO—and from the Oregon Nurses Associ- ation (ONA) and Oregon Feder- ation of Nurses and Health Pro- fessionals Local 5017, two unions that represent over 16,000 nurses in total. “We are … very disappointed to hear that you have been meet- ing with resistance at the bar- gaining table from the em- ployer,” wrote ONA executive Paul Goldberg June 26. “Please let our new brothers and sisters know that they have the full sup- port of the Oregon Nurses Asso- ciation. We will be pleased to help educate our membership about your struggle for repre- sentation and offer our support to your campaign in any way we can to assist in achieving a fair contract.” The IBEW bargaining team presented the letters to their management counterparts on June 30, and the next day, the Siemens negotiators came back with an offer even better than what the union had last pro- posed. Ratified in ballots counted Aug. 1, the four-year contract gives workers a one- time $2,000 bonus, a one-time pay bump of $1,000 to $6,000 a year for workers who are consid- ered underpaid relative to their co-workers, annual merit pay raises of 2.75 to 3.75 percent, stand-by pay for being on-call, and pay for travel time in some cases. It also locks in existing benefits like medical insurance and a 401(k) match, and it pro- vides an array of union rights and benefits, including progres- sive discipline process, griev- ance and arbitration procedures, and a successor agreement so that union contract terms con- tinue if the company is sold. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) has reached a tentative agreement on a new two-year contract with the state of Oregon. The sides came to terms at about 11 p.m. on July 7, follow- ing almost 14 hours of bargain- ing. Economic highlights of the proposed two-year agreement include: • Cost-of-living adjustments (CO- LAs) totaling 5 percent over the contract: 2.25 percent on Dec. 1, 2015, and 2.75 percent on Dec. 1, 2016. • Health insurance plans with op- tions of a 95-5 percent split for employees who choose the more expensive of the two plans, or 99-1 percent for those choosing the plan of less cost. • The day after Thanksgiving as a paid holiday for AFSCME-rep- resented state employees. “This agreement makes par- ticular advancements on health care issues and equitable wage increases,” said Ken Allen, ex- ecutive director of Oregon AF- SCME Council 75 and chief ne- gotiator. “We will whole- heartedly recommend passage to our membership.” The contract includes all AF- SCME-represented state agen- cies except the Department of Corrections; negotiations with the DOC continue. The state contract covers over 3,000 AF- SCME-represented workers; the DOC contract covers roughly another 3,000. Union members will begin a ratification process this month. Janus Youth Programs employees vote to join AFSCME Residential treatment employ- ees at Janus Youth Programs in Portland voted 26-12 July 21 to join Oregon AFSCME. There are 49 employees in the bargain- ing unit. They will join Local 1790, newly established for Ba- sic Rights Oregon employees. Janus Youth is a private non- profit that operates around Port- land. The clients range from age 13 to 21, with those 18 and older housed separately from the younger kids. “Our new members are pri- marily case managers and skills trainers,” said Council 75 Or- ganizer Doug Lantz, the lead AFSCME staffer on the organ- izing campaign. “They work with the youth in treatment pro- grams, teaching them a wide range of topics from basic life skills to job searching.” Lantz said a group of Janus workers contacted AFSCME about six months ago express- ing a desire to join the union. He says economics was a key issue, but not the only factor. “A lot of these workers have college degrees, and this is the field they want to work in, mak- ing a difference in young peo- ples’ lives,” Lantz said. “But at Janus, many are barely above minimum wage. So that is big factor, as they want to create new standards that will allow them to be able to afford to stay at Janus. And they’d like to see just better overall accountability for and from management. ” First contract negotiations will begin soon. A separate group of five pro- fessionals at Janus voted 3-2 not to unionize with the bargaining unit. Janus workers at the organi- zation’s Street Light homeless shelter are represented by the In- dustrial Workers of the World (IWW) Local 650.
