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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 17, 2021)
PAGE 6 | December 17, 2021 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS COLLECTIVE BARGAINING Pay rises $2 an hour in new contract for home care workers The deal between SEIU and the state of Oregon also adds holi- days and a step pay system. About 30,000 Oregon home care workers have ratified a new two-year union contract negoti- ated by SEIU Local 503. The contract raises pay by $0.90 an hour (5.7%) Jan. 1, 2022, and another $1.10 (6.7%) Jan. 1, 2023, bringing the pay rate up to $17.77 an hour in the final six months of the contract. Also in 2023, for the first time, Oregon home care workers will get hol- iday pay—time and a half for the first eight hours of work, for July 4, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. To acknowledge their service during the pandemic, the con- tract includes a hazard pay check of at least $2,000 for home care workers who worked from March 2020 to April 2021. Checks went out Dec. 1. A side agreement also com- mits to develop a new step pay system that will reward workers for sticking around, starting 2024. Home care workers are paid to help seniors and people with disabilities in their homes, pri- marily with funding from the federal Medicaid program. Members voted overwhelm- ingly to ratify the agreement on Nov. 12. It runs through June 30, 2023. –DM Workers could strike at shipyards in Portland and Seattle Best Wishes for a Bright New Year By more than a 95% margin, workers at shipyards in Portland and Seattle have voted to au- thorize a strike if the AFL-CIO Metal Trades Department can’t get an acceptable contract. The two shipyards, operated by Vigor Marine, employ a total of about 600 members of the Boilermakers, IBEW, Painters, Laborers, Sheet Metal, Pipefit- ters, Machinists, Teamsters, and Operating Engineers. Their con- tract expired Nov. 30. “Based on what the member- ship reported in their surveys, we’re a long ways apart on eco- nomics,” said Ben Heurung, Western Region general repre- sentative for the Metal Trades Department. “I have no doubt that we will reach an agreement. How long it will take, that I’m uncertain of.” At a time of renewed infla- tion, Vigor is offering wage in- creases of $0.35, $0.60, and $0.75 in a three-year contract, plus a $1,250 signing bonus if ratified by Dec. 31. The two sides have further negotiations scheduled for Dec. 20 and 22. Pandemic pay for County workers M erry C hristmas! from the officers and staff of R OOFERS AND W ATERPROOFERS L OCAL 49 Darrell Hopkins, Sr. Recording Secretary James Breneman Warden Travis Hopkins Field Rep Samantha Henson Office Manager Russ Garnett Business Manager/ Financial Secretary Snuffy Jones President Ray Carpenter Vice President Executive Board Jason Barthel James Breneman Ray Carpenter Rosa Hale Ryan Hoover Travis Hopkins Snuffy Jones About 2,000 AFSCME Local 88 members are getting a nice “thank you” Dec. 15—a $1,500 check to recognize frontline em- ployees at Multnomah County who worked during the COVID-19 pandemic. Local 88 president Josyln Baker says the bonus owes something to the persistence of outgoing AFSCME Local 88 president Percy Winters, who met with Multnomah County Chair Deb Kafoury to make the case for it. Initially the County wanted union concessions in re- turn—extending the contract by a year and capping a cost-of-liv- ing increase. Local 88 declined to make those concessions, and the County went ahead with the payment anyway. The bonus will be for mem- bers of Local 88 as well as members of other County unions and some unrepresented employees. “We thank these outstanding employees for keeping critical community services open to the public during the longest public health crisis in modern times,” said MultCo Matters, the county’s internal email newslet- ter. The payments go to frontline workers, those who worked on- site or with clients or the public in the field for the County for at least 320 hours between March 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. –DM
