Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About Cougar print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1976-1977 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 1976)
Clackamas Community College Vol. X, No. 4 Thursday, October 21, 1976 Negotiations flounder Classified staff faces strike y Lenna Fitch We have a hired gun on campus. Unless anSgement comes up with some money - lat's it. Over a hundred classified personnel e going to offer themselves up as hostages. Labor union AFSCME (American Fed- ation for State and County Municipal Em- oyees) has demanded an approximated 3.6 percent pay increase. Management has :fered only 2.2 percent. Consequently, lion members, who constitute a majority : classified staff, have voted to strike in the ,ent that management doesn't come up with reasonable agreement. We will all miss them. We will miss the jses. . .we will miss the delivery men. . . e will also miss everybody affiliated with FL-CIO. . .because they are affiliated with FSCME. Snployees in classified - particularly those i secretarial positions - have had to settle >r’craps so long that no one pays much lindwhen they ask to sit at the table with /embody else. Kristy Kofsky says, "We do a lot of ork and get little recognition for com- ansation. We get what's left after admini- :ralon and faculty get their wages." Miss Kofsky, a secretary, is president of >cal 2832. She said that the union's ori- nal proposal asked for a $55 raise across le board, to bring wages into a more equit ale range. The total amount equals 7 or ’/2percent that inflation has robbed. In addition they want 1.3 percent to aver the increased cost of insurance. Also, acording to Carolyn Ritter (member of lassified's negotiating team) they expected a get a 5 percent increment that had been reviously agreed to. ■They've even rejected our annual step lcrease," she said, referring to the incre- lent. "The 2.2 percent offered barely covers uriringe benefits." Miss Kofsky explained the problem. She lid that management had agreed that all ualified personnel would get an annual step icrease. It was assumed by many that this lcrease would be automatic. But instead, lanagement now says that classifiedsmust lanagement now says that classifieds must egotiate for the increase. So every year, the negotiating team will ave to show up at the bargaining table /¡th their little tin cups. But so far their 5 percent increment re vest has been rejected, and by the time hey pay their 7 percent tithing to inflation, hey will end up working for lower wages han last year. According to AFSCME, Clackamas Com- nunity is unique in that they were the irst community college in Oregon to affili- te themselves with an outside union. Only me other college has followed suit. Personnel Director Jim Painter, said that louse Bill 2263, dated June 1973, gave iublic employees the right to organize, and that in January, 1974, CCC's classified staff brought in AFSCME as their bargaining representative. Director of Fiscal Affairs Gary Dirrim, explained that before the House Bill or the union, employees in classified had a formal association and could make "In House Con tracts". They could still do so, he said, without the union. So why the union? Jim Painter, Gary Dirrim and Bill Ryan (Dean of College Services) are the three in management who represent CCC's Board of Education. And interestingly enough, Roger Rook and Ralph Groener - both members of the board - are running for public office. Should classified proceed with a strike and claim that the board indulges in unfair labor prac tices - Took and Groener may have as much chance on November 2 as two clay pigeons at a skeet shoot. Photo by Jerry Wheeler Colorful Indian garments will be the look Oct. 22, 23 and 24 during the Ouy Ka' Lah and ASG-sponsored Pow Wow to be held on the CCC campus. Dancing and drumming competition will also be featured as well as a display of Indian artifacts and teepees. CLACKAMAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE ARCHIVES