NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS |
JOBS
Oregon Zoo contracts out food service
December 7, 2018 | PAGE 5
The next generation of Cement Masons
Reversing the usual narrative, workers will be better
off at Aramark, thanks to skillful union negotiations.
By Don McIntosh
It seemed at first like a bomb had landed. In Jan-
uary, as Laborers Local 483 prepared to bargain a
new union contract for workers at the Oregon
Zoo, management notified the union that it was
planning to contract out food service to Aramark.
Up to 180 low-wage union members in the Zoo’s
cafes and catering operations would lose their jobs
— four years and one union contract after they
tried to improve conditions by joining Local 483.
Local 483 represents zookeepers and other work-
ers at Oregon Zoo, which is run by Metro, the re-
gional government for the Portland metropolitan
area.
Privatization — hiring a private contractor to
replace public employees — is usually seen by
public employee unions like Local 483 as a mortal
threat. But this time, members of the union bar-
gaining team had leverage: The union contract
was still in effect through June 30, and it con-
tained a clause barring the contracting out of
union-represented work. Local 483 filed a griev-
ance alleging that the plan to privatize violated
that contract, and the two sides prepared for a
binding arbitration that would decide the matter.
But instead of rolling the dice with an arbitrator,
Local 483 with the help of attorney Barbara Dia-
mond negotiated an agreement with Metro that
will improve conditions both for the workers who
Zoo employees Nic Boehm and Raeven Longanecker
have the same employer now, but as of Jan. 14, Longa-
necker will be an employee of contractor Aramark.
will now be Aramark employees, and for some of
the Zoo bargaining unit members they’ll be leav-
ing behind.
Thanks to the agreement, when Aramark takes
over food service at the Zoo Jan. 14, it will hire
all the Zoo’s current food service workers. They’ll
Turn to Page 10
CEMENT MASONS LOCAL 555 AND PLASTERERS LOCAL 82
RECOGNIZE LONGTIME MEMBERS AND GRADUATING
APPRENTICES at their annual holiday dinner Dec. 1, which drew a
record crowd of 243. Local 555 also turned out its largest class of new
journeymen in the history of the local. New journeymen are Jose
Avalos Guzman, Shane Clausen, Devan Dickson, Derek Engler,
Cristian Ponce, Jared Hinsley, Lakota Lawson, Matt Parker, Sean
Villareal, Valerie Carroll, Bliss Deckert, Matt Earley, James Grant,
Jazmyn Howland, Sucrija Kurtovic, Lucas McKay, Chris Pillsbury, and
Jeremy Williamson. Standing with them on the left are International
Rep Brett Hinsley, Apprenticeship Instructor Jeremy Kendall, and
Local 555 Business Manager Geoff Kossak. Several Local 555
members were awarded pins for longstanding membership,
including F.L.Cole, 50 years; John Blom and John Christianson, 40
years; D.J. Bauley, Robert Chavez, James Lang, Kenneth Meyer, Matt
Bickford, David Kindt, Nicholas Lytle, and Hal Wooten, 30 years; and
Robert Garner, Delbert Martin, and Mark Hambrook, 25 years.
PLASTERERS LOCAL 82 pin recipients were: Stan Stotts, 50 years;
Anthony Jackson, 30 years; and Ronald Courtain, Dan Korynta, Mark
Schlender, Richard G. Ward, Arlie Grunseth, George Mikkola, Richard
J. Ward, and Steve Zuercher, 25 years.