—
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Teams control budgets;
decide by consensus
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
cess. The teams have nothing to do
with discipline and discharge. How
ever, they participate in the hiring
process of a new employee who will
become part of their team up to the
point of signing off on the personnel
action.
The teams build and control
their own budgets. Decisions are
made by consensus.
The self-directed team en
ables the people to take initiative,”
said Mary Gustafik, a Mental
Health Associate 2 in Friendship
House.
The number of teams has
grown from five to 24. When a team
is formed, the workers are required
to take some training; additional
training may be requested.
Problems that arise within
the teams, the formation of a new
team, and issues involving more than
one team come under the authority
of the Self-Directed Teams Plan
ning Committee, made up of equal
numbers of Union and management
people.
“It is really, really impor
tant to have the Union involved,”
said Reese. “It’s important so that
we on the teams know the Union is
with us.”
The Self-Directed Team
Planning Committee in the Health
Department is a refinement of the
labor-management committees that
have existed throughout Marion
County for a number of years.
The performance self
directed teams will be reviewed an
nually by the Health Department
administrator and OPEU Local 294
President Chris Lord.
The self-directed teams are
recognition that workers on the front
lines know what is needed to do the
work and are most adaptable to
change within the organization.
They are in a position to more quickly
recognize and respond to the changes
necessary to meet the changing needs
of clients or the public.
“From the workers’ per
spective, the self-directed teams are
the opportunity of a generation to
take control of our work lives and to
gain the respect to which we have
always been entitled,” said Schneider.
A joint OPEU, Department project
Employment mediation training will tacfcte
workplace grievances and relationships
In an effort to get a resolu
tion to nettlesome problems that may
not be covered by the contract, and
to resolve workplace issues before
they become difficult problems, the
Employment Department and OPEU
Local 471 have recently sponsored
training on mediation.
“This is some of the best
training I’ve had,” said Margaret
Neill, a Union activist in the Em
ployment Department’s Beaverton
office. “I’m on the labor-manage
ment committee in the local office;
this will make me more effective
there.”
Mediation gives people a
way to get at problems that may be
disruptive to the workplace, but may
not be contract violations. And,
since private mediators are expen
sive, the Union'and the employer
decided to conduct training in-house
and develop a cadre of workers and
supervisors who would be trained in
its techniques.
In 1992, during interest
based bargaining, the Union and the
Employment Department agreed to
train a number of employees, both
Union and management, in media
tion skills. The Union and the De
partment jointly chose the trainer
and jointly chose the participants.
One of the criteria established
for this program was to have partici
pants who genuinely wanted to make
the workplace better. Eventually, 26
participants were chosen; about 80%
came from the bargaining unit. Soon,
they will be credentialed as mediators
by the trainers.
“The four-day training was
like living in a pressure cooker,” said
OPEU Local 471 Secretary Dave
Cleveland, also of the Beaverton of
fice. “But, I worked hard to get myself
chosen for the training.
“This training gave me the
techniques and the tools, die questions
to ask, that can be used outside the
mediation process,” Cleveland said.
“The mediation training was
in keeping with the idea of problem
solving and the parties’ interest to
communicate more effectively,” said
OPEU/SEIU Local 503 Organizer
Helen Moss. “Die key is, the me
diation won’t work unless people
are willing to try it.”
“I learned how to resolve
disputes and improve the relations,”
said OPEU member Bob Clark, of
Employment’s Klamath Falls office.
“Mediation will help
problems get resolved before they
escalate ihto grievances,” said
Neill. “It will also give line work
ers more control. We’ll be more
like a partner.”
Neill also thought the skills
she has learned will be useful to her
when she volunteers in the family
court.
There are some important
rules that pertain to the mediation
process and grievable issues:
• All discussions in media
tion are confidential. In other words,
information gleaned in mediation
cannot later be used in the grievance
procedure; you can’t go through me
diation and use information gath
ered there against either of the par
ties in the grievance process.
• If the mediation doesn’t
work out, you start al! over at
the beginning of the grievance
procedure.
OPEU Water Resources president’s
new job makes her first in the field
“My Union work
late January and early Febru
has afforded me the opportu
ary) can become a regulatory
nity to hone my leadership
hell for people in the field,”
skills that I might not have
she said.
gotten anywhere else,” said
Previously, in her
OPEU Local 690 President
two years with the Water Re
Bernadette Williams.
sources Department, Will
Those leadership
iams has worked with the
skills have now helped Will
Bernadette
Department’s water use re
Williams
iams become the first and only
porting and pump test pro
woman Water Resources employee
grams, resource management plan
regulating water in the field. She is
ning, surface water availability
continuing to strengthen her leader
group, and most recently volunteered
ship skills as a Member Organizing
her time and energy to work on a water
Committee (MOC) member first as
rights backlog.
signed to the Secretary of State orga
“It’s important to know how
nizing drive.
much water there is in the streams
Working with watermaster
throughout the state,” said Williams.
and OPEU/SEIU Local 503 steward
“We need certain levels to protect the
Vern Church from a base in Baker
fish, certain levels for recreation, as
City, Williams will be regulating wa
well as enough for irrigation, live
ter distribution, enforcing water laws,
stock, and domestic uses. We must
administrative rules and agency policy,
assure that there is maximum benefi
settling water rights disputes, re-map
cial use of that water.”
ping irrigation districts, and conduct
“I’ve worked hard atmy job,”
ing dam safety inspections.
Williams said, “but my Union activi
“Water is a big issue in
ties made my work more visible and
Oregon’s future,” Williams said.
didn’t detract from my opportunities
“Sometimes overlooked on a rainy
within the agency. Working with
day in western Oregon is that the state
management as a Union president and
is in the midst of a multiyear drought.”
steward has given me the chance to
“All of this great sunshine (in
show my leadership skills.”
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