PAGE 2 | December 18, 2015 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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SPELLING IT OUT FOR PORTLAND CITY COUNCIL Low-wage employees of City rec centers want union recognition — and $15 an hour.
LiUNA 483 to City: Let Rec workers into the union
Portland Parks & Rec employees
look to get $15 and a union
About 40 mostly youthful work-
ers from Portland’s recreation
and community centers showed
up to City Hall Dec. 2 to remind
City Council of a public commit-
ment Mayor Charlie Hales made
Oct. 21 to recognize more work-
ers into the union.
The union, in this case, is 920-
member Laborers Local 483,
which has waged a relentless
campaign to regularize and
unionize contingent workers, and
to bring up their wages.
Local 483, which at the time
represented about 80 permanent
workers at Parks and Rec, won a
significant arbitration May 1. Ar-
bitrator David Stiteler found that
the City had been violating the
union contract by assigning bar-
gaining unit work to non-union
employees classified as seasonal
or casual. He ordered the City to
stop. But how to comply is sub-
ject to interpretation. Both parties
agreed to start with union recog-
nition for those most obviously
doing bargaining unit work.
Thus, 86 more workers have
now been added to the union —
with sizable raises in pay and
benefits.
“I believe in the power of the
union,” Will Zeigler, 24, told the
Labor Press outside city council
chambers. Moments later, as fel-
low Parks & Rec workers
watched, Zeigler called on City
Council to do the right thing.
Zeigler earns up to $13.25 an
hour after five years teaching
swimming and music at Mt.
Scott Community Center — but
he’s currently on annual layoff
after exceeding a city-imposed
hours cap. “If I don’t make it into
the union but other people do,
then my work was worth it,” Zei-
gler told the Labor Press.
The two sides have set, and
extended, deadlines for what to
do with hundreds of other Rec
workers who fall into a grey area.
Will the City make the union
fight for the right to represent
each new individual, or will the
City voluntarily recognize new
members? Local 483 organizer
Tom Colett says he got an an-
swer at a Dec. 11 meeting with
city managers: About 50 more
will be added to the union bar-
gaining unit now, and the City
will look at a new union classifi-
cation covering up to 300 more
rec workers, via an ordinance set
to go to City Council by Jan. 16.