NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | October 21, 2016 | PAGE 3
Portland City Council passes fair scheduling resolution
Portland City Council unani-
mously passed a resolution Oct.
12 encouraging all Portland em-
ployers to review their schedul-
ing practices and consider
changes that ensure predictabil-
ity for employees. The non-bind-
ing resolution was submitted by
Commissioner Steve Novick.
Prior to the Council meeting,
more than 50 supporters of fair
scheduling laws rallied outside
City Hall. The rally was organ-
ized by the Oregon Working
Families Party. Speakers in-
cluded Tom Chamberlain, pres-
ident of the Oregon AFL-CIO,
and Jeff Anderson, secretary-
treasurer of United Food and
Commercial Workers Local 555.
Fair scheduling laws are the
next front in the fight for work-
ers’ rights. They’ve already
passed in Seattle and San Fran-
cisco, and New York City is
considering passing one.
“The recent victory (in Ore-
gon) on an increased minimum
wage doesn’t mean much with-
out a predictable schedule to
rely on for that wage increase,"
said Oregon Working Families
Party State Director Karly Ed-
wards. “We are at the next and
most essential phase of these or-
ganizing efforts, because sched-
uling practices are an essential
part of any job.”
During testimony before City
Council, retired Portland State
University economics professor
Mary King said that providing
people with very little notice of
an ever-changing work schedule,
demanding that employees be
‘on call’ without compensation,
or sending them home hours
FAIR SCHEDULING RALLY AT PORTLAND CITY HALL. Carly Edwards, director of the Oregon Working Families Party, speaks
to a coalition of fair scheduling groups at a rally Oct. 12, ahead of the Portland City Council’s vote on a fair scheduling
resolution. The resolution, which passed unanimously, encourages all Portland employers to review their scheduling
practices and consider changes that ensure predictability for employees.
early on slow days means that
Oregon workers are increasingly
struggling for financial stability,
stable care arrangements for their
children, medical care, and sleep.
“Our labor legislation needs
to catch up with new software
that facilitates employers in
treating their workers as if they
were inanimate inventory, rather
than people,” King said.
Businesses today are using
computer software to predict
customer volume based on
things like weather forecasts,
and then making last-minute
schedule changes — or requir-
ing workers to be on-call. Such
practices trim labor costs by
dumping business risk onto
workers.
Jacob Bureros, who addressed
City Council, said he often
works 12-hour shifts, then gets
called in to work again just a few
hours after finishing a shift.
“Even for a young healthy
guy, this became too much to
endure,” he said. “A 12-hour
shift followed by four hours of
sleep only to be called into work
a 16-hour shift as a regular
mode of operating wore on my
health and sense of well-being.”
The coalition was hopeful
that Novick, the resolution’s
sponsor, might offer an amend-
ment at the Council session that
THOMAS, COON,
NEWTON & FROST
In Clackamas County
WE SUPPORT
Jim Bernard for
County Chair
Ken Humberston for
County Commissioner
Position 4
NW Oregon Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Paid for and authorized by NW Oregon Labor Council
would require contractors doing
business with the city to give
workers advance notice of how
many hours and when they are
scheduled to work, but that did-
n’t happen.
The Oregon Legislature last
year preempted all cities from
adopting fair scheduling ordi-
nances until July 2017. The
moratorium was part of a com-
promise to get votes for the Ore-
gon paid sick leave law.
“If the Legislature doesn’t act
next year on this topic (fair
scheduling), I will be interested
in asking Council to consider an
ordinance,” Novick said. “I’m
committed to a strong process
that involves all stakeholders, in
developing a policy targeted to
address the problem, with con-
sideration of business prac-
tices.”
The Oregon Working Fami-
lies Party is leading a coalition
of groups who are working to-
gether to push state legislators to
pass a fair scheduling law.
Coalition members include
UFCW Local 555, Oregon
AFL-CIO, Oregon AFSCME,
Oregon Education Association,
Service Employees Local 503,
Oregon Nurses Association,
UNITE-HERE Local 8, Oregon
Trial Lawyers Association, the
Main Street Alliance of Oregon,
and others.
THOMAS, COON,
NEWTON & FROST