NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
June 2, 2017 | PAGE 7
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
City workers say their wages need to reflect the new high-rent Portland
By Don McIntosh
Over 100 members of Laborers
Local 483 gathered across from
City Hall May 25 to protest the
slow pace of contract bargaining
with the City. Local 483 is nego-
tiating on its own for the first
time since it left the multi-union
District Council of Trades
Unions last year. Contracts for
two Local 483-represented
groups expire June 30 — a unit
of about 600 workers in 37 clas-
sifications who maintain roads,
sewers, pump stations, waste-
water treatment facilities, parks
and community centers; and a
fluctuating unit of 400 to 700
workers who staff city recreation
centers. Wage increases are the
top issue for both groups.
Kassey Diaz, a member of the
union bargaining team for the
maintenance unit, says she and
her co-workers haven’t gotten
more than cost-of-living raises in
the 30 years she’s been a City
utility worker. And that’s becom-
ing a real problem, because the
Consumer Price Index (CPI) that
the raises are based on isn’t re-
LIVABLE PORTLAND: Mt. Scott Community Center worker Kate MacQuarrie
and union staffer Tom Colett present petitions to Commissioner Chloe Eudaly’s
chief of staff, Marshall Runkel. The message: City pay must consider the cost of
housing. “I would love to not have to live with four roommates,” MacQuarrie said.
UNITED FOR A FAIR CONTRACT: Local 483 members rally in Terry Schrunk
park, across from City Hall.
flecting the reality of the rapid
rent and home price increases of
recent years. The CPI has been
rising at 1 to 3 percent a year, but
rents are rising more than 10 per-
cent a year. Local 483 wants a
cost-of-living increase “floor” of
at least 2.5 percent, while City
managers want to keep the cur-
rent 1 percent floor. Local 483 is
also proposing that the City start
thinking about paying wages
comparable to other high-cost
wants to return to an 80-hour
“rolling” comp time bank; the
City wants a fixed limit of 120
hours a year, and for comp time
to accrue only for unscheduled
overtime.
For the rec center unit, mean-
while, priorities are longevity
pay for long-term workers, and
a starting wage of at least $15 an
hour.
“We want a living wage for all
City workers, no exceptions,”
West Coast cities, like Seattle
and San Francisco.
“Our public employees are
getting forced out of the city they
work in,” said Local 483
spokesperson Tom Colett. “Are
we going to become the next
New York or San Francisco,
where we have workers who
come into the city to work but
can’t afford to live here?”
The two sides also differ over
comp time policy: Local 483
said bargaining team member
Aubrie Cooper, a part-time front
desk worker at Matt Dishman
Community Center.
So far, City negotiators
haven’t agreed to the proposed
raises.
“Our answer to their ‘no’s’ is
‘no,’” Local 483 president Will
Tucker told rallygoers.
ONLINE See more rally photos at our
Flickr page at http://bit.ly/2rpslWI
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