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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 17, 2017)
PAGE 2 | November 17, 2017 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Associate editor: Don McIntosh Office manager: Cheri Rice Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $14 a year for union members, $22 a year for all others. Pay by credit card online at nwlaborpress.org/subscribe, or send a check to our mailing address (above) along with your name, address and union affiliation, if any. Group rates of $10.08 a year per person are available for 25 or more subscriptions; call 503-288-3311 for details. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: If you move, let us know at nwlaborpress.org/subscriber-services or by mail at our mailing address (above). Be sure to provide your old and new addresses and the name/number of your local union. Please allow three weeks for the change to take effect. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING DCTU reaches tentative agreement The deal with the City of Portland delivers long-overdue raises and more gender parity. Two weeks after members voted to authorize a strike, Dis- trict Council of Trade Unions (DCTU) reached tentative agreement with the City of Portland Nov. 3 on a new three-year contract covering nearly 1,100 City employees. AFSCME Local 189 Presi- dent Rob Martineau, a member of the union bargaining team, said it’s one of the best contracts he’s seen at the City, but he added that it wasn’t until after DCTU members got engaged, mobilized, and vocal that the City moved to compromise. The agreement includes an immediate 3.85 percent raise retroactive to the July 1, 2017 expiration of the previous union contract. (It’s a 1.65 percent across-the-board raise plus a 2.2 percent cost-of-living increase.) The agreement then delivers two more annual cost-of-living increases indexed to inflation. Workers in a number of job classifications will also get sep- arate raises of up to 10 percent — in cases where both the City and the unions agreed that they were underpaid compared to their counterparts at other public employers. Some of those un- derpaid classifications were in jobs traditionally held by women, like the City’s parking code enforcement officers; both sides agreed there was a historic gendered pay discrepancy, which a 9.65 percent raise will remedy. And for about 100 po- lice records specialists, the gen- der-parity raises will even be retroactive, a $1.95 an hour in- crease going back more than two years. That stems from a le- gal case the DCTU won in which the City labor relations director was accused of failing to bargain in good faith. One key sticking point that delayed agreement was resolved with a compromise. The City proposed to double the em- ployee share of insurance pre- miums (to 10 percent) for any employees who failed to get a medical checkup at least once every two years. DCTU nego- tiators objected on the grounds of medical confidentiality, but in the end, the two sides crafted contract language assuring that managers won’t have access to the medical screening results. Several management propos- als also were dropped for the sake of the deal. City negotiators said it can be hard to recruit new employees in some job classifi- cations, and proposed to give managers the discretion to bring new hires in half-way up the salary scale and with more paid vacation than the union contract otherwise entitles them to. DCTU argued that was unfair to existing employees and said if the City had trouble recruiting, they should raise the starting wage for all, not give managers discretion to grant favors. Martineau said. The deal now goes out for ratification among members of the six unions that make up the DCTU coalition: AFSCME Local 189, IBEW Local 48, Machin- ists Lodge 63, Painters District Council 5, Plumbers and Fit- ters Local 290, and Operating Engineers Local 701. NOTE: As this issue went to press Nov. 14, the two sides became aware they were not in total agreement on what they agreed on, which could delay taking it to a vote. See nwlaborpress.org for updates. Legacy Emanuel settles with SEIU Strike averted, hospital support workers ratify a new contract Members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Lo- cal 49 at Legacy Emanuel Hos- pital, Randall Children’s Hospi- tal, and Unity Behavioral Health Center voted 238-31 on Nov. 6 to ratify a new three-year union contract. The agreement was reached Nov. 1 as workers pre- pared to walk off the job for a two-day strike that was slated for Nov. 8 and 9. The contract provides raises totaling 7.75 percent over three years for the 750-member unit, which consists of certified nurs- ing assistants, emergency techs, housekeepers, cafeteria workers and other support workers. It also gives the most senior workers an additional $1.10 an hour. Legacy also agreed to a sys- tem of personalized financial as- sistance for members who are unable to pay their medical bills. That comes as Legacy was em- barrassed in a Nov. 1 Willamette Week story about a Local 49 member at Legacy Emanuel who was sent to collections for lym- phoma treatment — at Legacy. The deal also comes as Legacy faces a record-busting fine of $276,680 from the Ore- gon Bureau and Labor and In- dustries for 4,439 instances in which surgical and housekeeping employees at Legacy Emanuel failed to be given legally man- dated meal breaks. The new contract runs through June 30, 2020, three years after the previous contract expired. Low Prices! Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6 140
