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May 29th Bargaining Report

Twenty-nine Union members attended ODOT Coalition Union Contract bargaining on May 29. We were especially pleased to have with us ODOT East Portland Bridge Crew members and the group of ODOT Union member-participants who show up faithfully and help us focus our efforts. We were also pleased to have with us Ron McGee, a mediator. Ron will be with us through negotiations.

We began negotiations by talking about the travel policy. The Union members from ODOT led a strong back-and-forth with Tom Perry, the lead State negotiator, and detailed how it is that funds available under the travel policy cannot be stretched to cover legitimate costs of traveling for night shift workers called out of town during the summer months.

We also briefly discussed the packages and issues remaining with us from our last meeting and the letters of agreement we have been working with in negotiations. Neither side felt ready to fully respond to the other on these items. During a break in the proceedings Ron McGee explained how mediation will work and what his role will be.

The State negotiating team gave us two packages which, if adopted, would take us back to current contract language on most of the items covered. Their additional proposals covering work clothing, boots, tools and safety glasses were so narrowly focused and sidestepped so much of what we have been discussing and working for in negotiations that we could only express our dissatisfaction and anger with their offers. When pushed to respond to our real needs, Tom Perry said that they “do not believe that anything is broken in these articles” and added that “we do not see what isn’t working.” This response comes after many months of hard work and presentations by our bargaining team, exchanges of proposals, testimony by workers directly affected by the problems we have been pointing out and some common-sense arguments advanced by our team which are aimed at increasing State efficiencies and savings.

Taken together, they have rejected our proposals on overtime, work schedule premium pay, education and promotional opportunities, allowances for protective clothing and tools, meal allowances, work schedules and sensitive and difficult customers. Many of their counter-proposals, if adopted, would divide our membership and make agencies less flexible and less willing to adapt and adopt better practices.

When we questioned the State team about their proposals we got only vague responses. We asked how emergency calls to Fish and Wildlife agency workers might be handled if the calls were not answered by Union-represented workers and they said that they do not know. We asked if people now currently working for free by answering emergency calls from home would be paid overtime and got contradictory responses. We asked how many management positions and how many Union-represented positions have been filled through upward mobility and career development planning and we were told that they had no idea. We asked why the State team’s offers on boots and tool reimbursements and protective eyewear were either pegged so low or excluded certain agencies and classifications and we did not get a definitive answer. We offered a cost-effective compromise on safety glasses and were put off.

Cory McIntosh (DMV), Kermit Meling (ODOT) and Bob Fields (Forestry) made concluding remarks and our team then left negotiations.

Negotiations will resume on Monday, June 4 at 6:30 pm at the ODOT training center on 19^th Street in Salem. We expect to make full use of the mediator assigned to us. As always, we will meet at our Salem Union hall by 5:00 pm for a meal and discussion.

Between now and our session on the 4^th we need stories from people at Fish and Wildlife detailing how their agency has denied people a choice between taking cash or comp time for overtime worked. We need all of our Coalition activists to think about how they and others in their worksites respond to after-hours calls from managers about work and be prepared to discuss these responses at negotiations. We need first-person stories dealing with the lack of education, training and development in ODOT Coalition agencies and off-the-street hiring and promotions. And we need members from ODOT Coalition agencies to show up at negotiations, show solidarity and help us make our case for better contract language.

Our ODOT Coalition Bargaining Co-chairs will work on a response to the last package the State team presented to us. Our team left negotiations in a spirit of righteous anger before responding to this disappointing package.

Special mention should go to Bob Fields (Forestry), the ODOT workers from Salem and Portland, Terry Farrell (ODFW), Lorrie Schaeffer (ODOT) and Jim Harvey (ODFW) for their work at this negotiating session.

Worksite Visits

Yesterday I visited with the crew out at Manning. They are not happy with management's proposals and their lack of movement on important issues. I left them a few SEIU signs so they could take a picture, and I will post those as soon as I receive them. After that I went out to McMinnville but only caught one member because everybody else was out on paving until later. I left some signs with them and if they send me a picture I will certainly post it. In a little bit I'm going to head over to Lawnfield to give a quick bargaining update and see what kind of actions they are planning on doing to support bargaining.

Salem Area Stewards Meeting + Lessons from the Outback

This Saturday we are planning on having our 2^nd ‘Salem Area’ Stewards meeting. This is open to all who are currently Stewards, or are wanting to become Stewards. We will go over some basic Steward skills, as well as talk through different grievances that are going on. It will be fun and I encourage anybody who will be in Salem on Saturday to attend! We will plan on meeting at the Union Hall in the morning at 10 a.m. and meet until around noon.

If you can’t make it to Salem for that, there is a workshop in Portland as well that day. “Lessons from Down Under” is a guest speaker named Patrick Healey, Director, Community Public Sector Union, Australia. It goes from 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. at the Portland SEIU office at 6401 SE Foster Rd. It is presented by the Statewide Stewards Committee. If you’re interested in this you can register with Barbara Kellogg at kellogb@opeuseiu.org or Christina Moore at moorec@opeuseiu.org

Weingarten Rights... What are they?

In the union we talk about Weingarten Rights a lot, but we rarely talk about where it came from, why, and the specifics of how it works in practice. I thought I'd post a blog entry with a link with some of the answers, and see what your thoughts are too.

Coalition Bargaining Reminder

Before we all go off to our memorial day weekend plans, don't forget to mark your calendars for Tuesday evening at the ODOT HR center. It is another important round of coalition bargaining. Here is a brief calendar of the remaining scheduled sessions:

ODOT Coalition Bargaining:
Tuesday, May 29th, 6:30 p.m. @ ODOT HR Center
Monday, June 4th, 6:30 p.m. @ ODOT HR Center
Monday, June 11th, 6:30 p.m. @ TBD (Possibly the ODF Building)

Central Table Bargaining is still every Tuesday; but the next discussion of core economics is on June 12th at the SEIU building in Salem. That starts at 8:30 a.m. I believe. The next month is huge in determining what kind of contract we get, so lets do this. Come to bargaining, coalition or central table, engage in the issues, and do worksite actions like the folks in all the pictures on this blog. I'll be back Tuesday!

Salem Maintenance Say No Less Than 4%!!!

Burtie Awards at State Capitol

I attended the 1st Annual Burtie Awards at the State Capitol today. ODOT was the "proud" winner of two Burtie Awards. The first Burtie went to the Office of Project Delivery for the Heather Catron fiasco involving Parametrix. If you are not familiar with this story, Heather worked for Parametrix prior to taking a job with ODOT. She continued to work for Parametrix part-time while working for ODOT and funneled over 70% of the out-sourced projects to her other employer. When her duel employment was brought out into the open, Heather left ODOT and went back to Parametrix full time working on the projects she guided to their company.
The second Burtie was awarded to the Bridge department for their brilliant plan of hiring contractors to do bridge repairs and constantly paying for overruns on many of the projects. No one at ODOT Bridge seems to care that the costs are higher than what was bid. We care and want something done to stop these out landish overruns.
These two and the other Burties awarded to other agencies are wake up calls to our legislature to deal with the major out-sourcing issues. There were about 100 people attending the event. From what I could tell, there were about 5 0r 6 ODOT employees attending. Myself and another Financial Services employee, Shannon Jackson, took signs pointing out the pathetic 1% raise the management team has offered. Need to keep putting this in the public light. Fox News was filming the event along with a couple of print reporters. I believe the Statesman Journal may have been one. I'll let you know if anything is printed.

East PDX Bridge on Managements 1% offer

East PDX Bridge Wants Travel Fairness

As the blog entry posted a few days ago suggests ODOT SEIU members are getting shafted on the travel policy. Management asserted it has been this way for decades so obviously theres not a problem. Today East PDX said they disagree and wanted to send the message to Salem.

Shirts and Coalition Bargaining Reminder

Hello Everybody,
Just wanted to remind you all about coalition bargaining on Monday. It's at the HR Building in Salem at 6:30 and should go pretty late into the night. We have already talked through almost all of the proposals and it is time now to get management counter proposals and come up with our own counter offers. If you're there you have a say in how we procede. Also, we got a shipment of SEIU shirts in this morning, and I put about 50 in my car. If you want one, come to bargaining on Monday

HEM's meet with Matt Gerrett

This morning about 15 HEM's from the Salem Shop met with the Director of ODOT Matt Gerrett. They expressed their concerns about recruitment, retention and moral that would result from the management proposal that came out of the Hayes study. The meeting with Mr. Gerrett was another step the mechanics are taking to ensure they get a fair deal in negotiations. If you're a mechanic share your thoughts. If you're in a different classification and would like to share what you are doing to support bargaining (whether its your selective, fighting against the 1% offer, a boot allowance, travel policy equity) post it in the comments section below.

Unequal Travel of SEIU Employees (by Mike Johnson)

The following shows how the employees in the ODOT Coalition are treated differently then the rest of the employees within ODOT. As you can see, there are significant differences in what SEIU employees receive and what the rest of the employees within ODOT receive.

NON-OVERNIGHT TRAVEL STATUS

	Breakfast	Dinner	Total	Requirements
SEIU	$0.00	$8.00	$8.00	Work 10-12 consecutive hours *
AEE	$9.75 to $13.50	$19.50 - $27.00	$29.25 - $40.50	Work 2 hours before/after shift
Management	$9.75 to $13.50	$19.50 - $27.00	$29.25 - $40.50	Work 2 hours before/after shift
Unrepresented	$9.75 to $13.50	$19.50 - $27.00	$29.25 - $40.50	Work 2 hours before/after shift

* minimum of 2 hours more in shift up to 24 hours without a reasonable break of 6 hours

NON-COMMERCIAL OVERNIGHT TRAVEL STATUS (100% daily allowance)

	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Per Diem/ Lodging	Totals
SEIU	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$47.00	$47.00 *
AEE	$9.75 to $13.50	$9.75 to $13.50	$19.50 - $27.00	$25.00	$64/00 - $79.00
Management	$9.75 to $13.50	$9.75 to $13.50	$19.50 - $27.00	$25.00	$64/00 - $79.00
Unrepresented	$9.75 to $13.50	$9.75 to $13.50	$19.50 - $27.00	$25.00	$64/00 - $79.00

*Includes meals, lodging, mileage and incidentals

NON-COMMERCIAL OVERNIGHT MILEAGE ALLOWANCE

	Roundtrip to Salem	Mileage Rate	Total Mileage Cost	SEIU	AEE, Mgmt, Unrep
Astoria	136 x 2 = 272	x .485	$131.92	$0.00	$131.92
Bend	131 x 2 = 262	x .485	$127.07	$0.00	$127.07
Klamath Falls	234 x 2 = 468	x .485	$226.98	$0.00	$226.98
La Grande	306 x 2 = 612	x .485	$296.82	$0.00	$296.82

Looking at the information above, if an employee is on an assignment for seven days, going from La Grande to Salem; the SEIU represented employee would receive $329.00 for non-commercial overnight travel. For the same assignment, an AEE, Management, or Unrepresented employee would receive between $744.82 and $849.82.

Another example, a state temp was hired specifically to work on a short-term project that required the employee to be on non-commercial overnight travel status. The employee will receive $64.00 each day of the three-week assignment plus roundtrip mileage (roundtrip: 170 miles x .485 = $82.45) for a total of $1,426.45. The rest of the crew of permanent ODOT employees will only receive $47.00 each day and no mileage for a total of $987.00.

Imagine how discouraged the employees feel that a temp will receive higher travel reimbursement for the same assignment. How would you feel? What we are requesting is not special rates or treatment. We are asking for the same rates as all other employees currently receive as established by the GSA and outlined in the DAS Travel Policy. It is time for the Letter of Agreement to sunset and to allow the coalition to be compensated fairly as all other ODOT employees.

Messages to Management

All the pictures we've been collecting we will deliver to Management on Tuesday at Bargaining. If your crew wants to do something similar, email me and let me know (barnardt@opeuseiu.org). We will deliver them every Tuesday until management gets the message.

Milwaukie Bridge Crew

Another crew sending management the message - 1% ain't gonna cut it!

Salem Shop

The Salem Shop wanted this message delivered to management!

Troutdale Sign Crew

Signals to management they won't hang around for 1%! Good work out there. If you have similar worksite actions, make sure to email them to your organizer or personally bring them to bargaining on Tuesdays. Management needs to hear your voice.

Coalition Bargaining

Hope to see you all there tonight! Questions or directions call Troy at 503-830-1201

Travel Articles

I spoke with two Financial Services managers today who told me they finally saw the travel proposals we have presented to the management bargaining team. They had to go to the management team to see the proposals as the management team has not contacted anyone in Financial Services management about the proposals. I suspect the reason is that FS managers agree it time to revise the language and would tell the bargaining team as much.
To say the least, we need to spread the word that these are important articles that need to be bargained into the contract and out of the LOA.
Fair travel reimbursements for all SEIU employees!
Thanks!

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