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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (May 21, 2021)
PAGE 2 | May 21, 2021 | 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: https://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Senior staff reporter: Don McIntosh Office manager: Jill Lukens Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $15 a year for union members, $23 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 48 cents an issue per member — $11.52 a year 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 THIS NEWSPAPER BROUGHT TO YOU BY AMERICA’S LABOR MOVEMENT … AND BY OUR ADVERTISERS. Hours: Mon-Sat 12-6 pm Closed Sunday ...Providence deal took 3 years From Page 1 gaining agreement provides raises of 2%, 1.5%, and 1.5% in May 2021, 2022, and 2023. But it also continues the hospital’s discretion to base pay rates on management’s judgment of em- ployees’ “merit.” That’s rare for union contracts. Wages will rise more than the annual minimums though, union spokesperson Tara Noftsier explained, be- cause of other pay features in the contract. The agreement establishes a convoluted set of pay ranges— for each job classification, when an employee starts and when they reach the 5, 15, and 20 year mark, the contract specifies minimum, mid-range, and max- imum pay. Because many work- ers are making less than the minimums in that scale, they’ll get raises. Local 49 estimates wages will rise on average 13% over the course of the three years, or just under 4.5% a year. Some will see greater improve- ments, and some smaller. The biggest increases will go to the least-paid workers, including housekeepers, whose starting wage rose from $14.03 to $15.30 an hour. The contract also requires the hospital to give workers their schedules at least two weeks in advance (some previous sched- ule postings had said, “check daily.”) And it includes certain basic union rights, like the right to have a union steward present during disciplinary meetings with a manager, and the require- ment that all discipline be grounded on “just cause.” Portland-based Local 49 rep- resents 10,000 health care work- ers at Kaiser Permanente, Legacy Health Systems, Peace- health, and several smaller hos- pitals. Providence, based in Renton, Washington, is a chain of 51 hospitals in six states. At every stage, Providence fought to frustrate and oppose the union. As bargaining dragged on and on, Providence said it could- n’t give interim raises to union members, but it relented after Lo- cal 49 complained to the Na- tional Labor Relations Board (NLRB). “I think part of them dragging it out was really trying to break our willpower and break our de- sire to have a contract,” said housekeeper Melissa O’Neil, a 17-year Providence Milwaukie employee and member of the union bargaining team. “But it didn’t work.” Though nurses at the hospital are represented by Oregon Fed- eration of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP), this was the first unit of hospital support workers at Providence to union- ize with Local 49, and it’s still the only one. In December 2018, a similar group of 800 workers at Providence Portland Medical Center voted by a razor-thin mar- gin to unionize, but Trump ap- pointees to the NLRB overturned that result last July by reinterpret- ing a single smudged ballot. “It doesn't matter how small you are,” O’Neil said. “You know, David fought Goliath and won, and so did we.”
