PAGE 4 | August 24, 2018 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Northwest Machinists members approve new
four-year contract with Weyerhaeuser
Members of Machinists District
Lodge W24 voted by a 69 per-
cent margin Aug. 2 to approve a
new four-year contract with
Weyerhaeuser. It covers about
1,100 Weyerhaeuser employees
in Washington and Oregon, in-
cluding loggers, road mainte-
nance workers, log truck driv-
ers, log yard workers, and
workers at Weyerhaeuser
sawmills in Longview and Ray-
mond, Washington, and San-
tiam and Cottage Grove, Ore-
gon.
District W24 Lodge Direct-
ing Business Representative
Noel Willet says the new agree-
ment secures industry-leading
compensation, with across-the-
board wage increases averaging
16 percent over the life of the
agreement. About 40 percent of
members are in job classifica-
tions that will also get additional
“bracket adjustments” of as
much as $4 an hour to keep
wages competitive and attract
and retain workers to the com-
pany. Current wages average
above $23 an hour, with some
classifications like electricians
and millwrights earning around
$35 an hour.
The new agreement does
contain several features that
members objected to. Weyer-
haeuser will withdraw from the
union-sponsored multi-em-
ployer health trust and instead
provide health insurance
through a self-insured company
plan. And going forward, Wey-
erhaeuser will contribute 5 per-
cent of gross pay toward a
401(k)-style retirement plan for
new hires — instead of the de-
fined benefit pension that cur-
rent members are in. Both those
items were sticking points that
led members to reject two pre-
vious contract offers — and au-
thorize the union bargaining
team to call a strike. Weyer-
haeuser improved its final offer
with an additional $1.15 an hour
to wages and dropped proposals
that would have increased
mandatory overtime and di-
rected maintenance workers to
do production work at its Cot-
tage Grove mill.
The new union agreement
runs through May 31, 2022.
Drivers and supporters celebrate contract ratification at a rally prior to the Aug. 14 school board meeting.
Special ed bus drivers ratify long-delayed
contract with Portland Public Schools
Special education school bus
drivers voted Aug. 14 to ap-
prove a new two-year collective
bargaining agreement with Port-
land Public Schools (PPS). The
71 to 9 vote followed over a
year of bargaining between PPS
and Amalgamated Transit
Union (ATU) Local 757. Settle-
ment was reached when PPS
improved its offer even after it
implemented what it had earlier
called its final offer.
The agreement covers ap-
proximately 100 drivers who
transport about 600 students
with disabilities and special
needs. They work 30-hour
weeks consisting of weekday
split shifts of three hours each.
The new agreement raises
starting pay to $18.50 an hour
— up from $16.25 currently.
The top rate for a driver with 25
years experience will rise from
$23.84 to $25.75. A smaller set
of raises are retroactive to the
June 30, 2017, expiration of the
previous contract, meaning
drivers will get a check covering
those raises for all the hours
they worked during the last
school year.
During months of school
board protests, drivers called for
the same pay as Teamster-repre-
sented truck drivers who trans-
port food and supplies at the dis-
trict. The new agreement makes
progress toward that, but
doesn’t reach parity.
“We really think this is the
best deal we could have got to
without a strike, but at the same
time it’s not nearly as much as
these drivers are worth,” said
Local 757 spokesperson An-
drew Riley.
Local 757 also wanted limits
on the district’s use of vans and
cars to transport students who
can’t travel with other students
because of behavioral or disci-
pline problems; they’re being
driven by less-well-compen-
sated drivers. The new agree-
ment says the district may dis-
cuss that issue in a committee
with representatives of labor
and management.
The new contract runs
through June 30, 2019.
Members of the bargaining team used their own paid time off to meet
with management and bargain a first union contract.
Medical techs secure a first union
contract at Sacred Heart in Eugene
A group of about 330 medical
technicians at PeaceHealth Sa-
cred Heart hospital in Spring-
field and Eugene, Oregon, rat-
ified their first-ever union
contract by a roughly 9-to-1
margin on Aug. 10. That’s af-
ter the workers voted to union-
ize last November by a more
than three to one margin, join-
ing Oregon Federation of
Nurses and Health Profession-
als (OFNHP), an affiliate of
American Federation of
Teachers (AFT).
The new three-year agree-
ment provides annual raises of
3 percent, plus additional
raises of 1 to 3 percent halfway
through the third year in order
to get members on a unified
union wage scale based on
classification. It locks in the
existing 401(k) retirement plan
and health insurance for em-
ployees and their families. A
new labor management com-
mittee will jointly administer a
$30,000 a year education fund
for pay for members to attend
professional trainings. And the
contract institutes standard
union contract rights like “just
cause” discipline, a grievance
process, and seniority rights,
as well as a requirement that
all represented employees
share responsibility for union
dues or fees.
But the gain that members
are most enthusiastic about has
to do with paid time off, says
OFNHP president Adrienne
Enghouse. Medical techni-
cians were motivated to union-
ize when PeaceHealth man-
agement decreed that they
would no longer accrue paid
time off for overtime hours
they worked, only on the first
40 hours. The new contract re-
stores paid time off accrual for
all hours worked.
Enghouse said there’s also
been a shift in workplace cul-
ture at the hospital.
“They really didn’t feel re-
spected or feel like their voice
was heard,” Enghouse said.
“The union has changed the
tone of their relationship with
management to one that’s
more collaborative.”
— Don McIntosh
Columbia Area Transit in Hood River signs
first union contract with ATU Local 757
A group of 10 bus drivers em-
ployed by Columbia Area
Transit in Hood River unani-
mously approved their first
union contract, after joining
Amalgamated Transit Union
Local 757 last August.
The agreement provides an
immediate 10 percent raise
followed by three annual
raises totaling 8.7 percent over
the life of the four-year agree-
ment. Wages currently range
from $12 to $16 an hour de-
pending on experience. Under
the new union wage scale,
newly hired drivers will start
at $14.41 an hour and rise to
$20.20 after 10 years.
Drivers will also get a one-
time $400 retention bonus
next July; employee-only
health insurance, with an op-
tion to buy up for dependents;
and a 401(k)-style retirement
plan with an employer match
of up to 3 percent of gross
wages that employees elect to
contribute. Lastly, the two
sides agreed to meet to discuss
whether Columbia Area Tran-
sit can contract out its planned
Columbia Gorge express serv-
ice to Portland.