NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | February 16, 2018 | PAGE 5
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
POLITICS
Breakthrough in new teacher contract at
Portland Public Schools: class size limits
Building Trades backs Nick Fish,
Loretta Smith for City Council
The long-delayed agreement
also raises pay 8 percent and
adds a day to the school year.
A new union contract at Port-
land Public Schools (PPS) con-
tains a major advance for teach-
ers (and students and parents):
Oregon’s first enforceable limits
on class size.
The three-year agreement ne-
gotiated by Portland Association
of Teachers (PAT) covers 4,000
teachers, psychologists and
other professionals who serve
over 49,000 students at the
state’s largest school district.
PAT has pushed for years to
get PPS to commit to limits on
class sizes, but top administra-
tors declined to discuss it. Under
Oregon law, class size is a “per-
missive” subject of collective
bargaining, meaning districts
don’t have to negotiate over it
with unions if they don’t want
to. PAT president Suzanne Co-
hen credits Guadalupe Guer-
rero, PPS’ new superintendent,
for the district’s change of heart.
“He said, ‘If this is what’s im-
portant to you, then let’s talk
about it,’” Cohen says.
Under the new agreement,
the district spells out class size
Raymond Thomas
Cynthia Newton
Melissa Haggerty
goals for all grade levels. If
those thresholds are exceeded,
the district may give teachers
the option of having a half-time
educational assistant, or receiv-
ing overload pay equal to 3 per-
cent of base salary for each ad-
ditional student. The thresholds
are 24 students for kindergarten
classes, 26 for grades 1 to 3, and
28 for grades 4 to 5. For middle
and high schools, the thresholds
limit how many students teach-
ers may see in a day: 150 (or
220 for performance classes) for
middle school; and 160 (or 225
for performance classes) for
high school.
“This is really historic,” said
Cohen, who worked as a middle
school math teacher before tak-
ing leave to serve as a union of-
ficer. “We have been wanting
this for so long. We want to be
able to give students one-on-one
individual attention.”
The new contract also:
■ limits case loads for psychologists;
■ reduces the amount of time educators
must spend in meetings;
■ increases the amount of paid time they
have to plan lessons;
■ adds one instructional day to the school
year (now 177);
■ maintains current benefits; and
■ provides annual across-the-board wage
increases of 3 percent, 2.75 percent, and
2.25 percent.
Cohen called the wage pack-
age a fair settlement, and said
teachers compromised on wages
to secure the class size limits.
With the raises, Cohen says PPS
teacher wage levels will no
longer be the lowest among
metro-area school districts. Un-
der the contract, the current an-
nual salary for a first-year
teacher with a master’s degree is
$48,609 — rising to $72,621
with 12 years experience.
Most of the raises will be
retroactive to the July 1, 2016,
expiration of the previous con-
tract. That’s because the new
agreement took more than two
years to negotiate, and the three-
year period it covers is halfway
complete. The new agreement
runs through June 30, 2019.
Cohen said members voted
overwhelmingly to approve the
new contract in a Feb. 5 ballot
count. The PPS board ratified it
Feb. 8.
Meeting in Salem this month,
state lawmakers are considering
a bill to make class size a
mandatory subject of bargain-
ing.
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The Columbia Pacific Building
Trades Council has endorsed
Loretta Smith and Nick Fish for
Portland City Council. Smith, a
two-term Multnomah County
commissioner is running for the
seat being vacated by City
Commissioner Dan Saltzman.
Smith is term limited from run-
ning for a third term at Mult-
nomah County. Fish is seeking
re-election to a third term on the
council.
The May primary race for
Saltzman’s seat will be compet-
itive, with four other candidates
filed to run. The deadline to file
is March 6. If no candidate re-
ceives a majority of votes in the
May 15, 2018 primary election,
the two candidates receiving the
highest number of votes will
advance to the Nov. 6, 2018
General Election ballot.
For the May primary, CP-
BCTC also endorsed:
■ Multnomah County: Chair Deborah
Kafoury for re-election. Susheela Jayapal
for commissioner in District 2, the seat
being vacated by Loretta Smith.
■ Clackamas County: Paul Savas for re-
election as Commissioner for Position 2,
and Sonya Fischer as Commissioner for
Position 5. Pamela White for County clerk.
■ Washington County: Ryan Deckert for
County chair.
■ Metro Regional Council: Shirley
Craddick for re-election as councilor in
District 1. Lynn Peterson for council
president. Peterson is a former Clackamas
County commission chair and former
director of the Washington Department of
Transportation. Christine Lewis for
councilor in District 2, and Dana
Carstensen for councilor in District 4.
Carstensen is a member of Laborers Local
483 and works for Metro at the Oregon
Zoo.
...Project labor agreement
From Page 1
will be outfitted with cutting-
edge labs, research facilities,
prototyping tools, imaging fa-
cilities, human subject interac-
tion spaces and an innovation
hub. Phase one will include two
buildings totalling 160,000
square feet, joined together by
a glass terrace with a pedestrian
bridge connecting the buildings
to the main campus. Total cost
is $225 million. It is scheduled
for an early 2020 opening.
Frew said UO balked at the
building trades’ proposal for a
master PLA, which would have
required all subcontractors to
be signatory with a union. The
sides eventually came to terms
on a deal that combines lan-
guage from various project la-
bor agreements—with much of
it modeled after one the Colum-
bia-Pacific Building Trades
signed with Multnomah
County on the new courthouse
now under construction in Port-
land.
There is language in the
PLA limiting nonunion subcon-
tractors from using more than
50 percent plus one of their
core workers on the project.
The remainder of their employ-
ees will have to be dispatched
by the respective union craft, if
workers are available. Non-
union subcontractors that hire
union-referred employees will
have to adhere to the wage and
fringe benefits package of the
applicable collective bargaining
agreement. Otherwise, con-
struction wages and benefits
will be determined under state
prevailing wage laws.
There are also requirements
for subcontractors to utilize
women, minorities, veterans,
and apprentices, and be regis-
tered with a recognized appren-
ticeship training program, Frew
said.
Nike founder Phil Knight
and his wife Penny donated
$500 million towards develop-
ment and construction of the
new facility. UO approved
$225 million, and the Oregon
Legislature okayed $50 million
in state bonds during the 2017
session (with possibly $40 mil-
lion more to be authorized this
session). The university still
must raise $500 million from
donors.
The PLA also was signed by
the Pacific Northwest Regional
Council of Carpenters.
Two organizations affiliated
with OSBCTC did not agree to
some of the language in the
PLA and did not sign off on it.
They are Plumbers and Fitters
Local 290, and the International
Union of Painters and Allied
Trades District Council 5,
which includes Painters & Ta-
pers Local 10, Floor Coverers
Local 1236, and Glass Workers
Local 740.