Creating A Better World, Member Organizers

Union advocates cite statistics that point to the decline in Union membership in our lifetime. A number frequently used is only 12% of American Labor is unionized; down 35% in 30 years.

I wonder about that statistic. Not the validity of it. Numbers are numbers. It is obvious from the culture changes I have lived through and the change in the stories of Working Class guys & gals, that unions do not play the same role as they did in the 1950’s.

I wonder what those Union guys & gals of the 50’s & 60’s taught their children. Did they teach their families that Union jobs were the future? Did they help their children see a Union job as a worthy goal?
Or . . . did our parents and grandparents aspirations for the next generation tend towards doctors, lawyers and managers?

My father was an accountant. Working for Oregon Steel, office staff was not unionized, he saw up close the benefits of belonging to a Union. He taught me about those benefits decades before he ever had the opportunity to belong to a Union.

If these past laborers were not teaching and preaching Unions, why not? I believe wanting their children to be doctors and lawyers was only part of the answer; and not the most important part.

The history of several union organizations was organizers doing everything for the members. Those unions had organizers (business agents) that made sure every new employee was introduced to the union and the reasons why. Before the days of direct deposit and automatic withdraws the business agent came around to each and every members house or flat to collect their dues. Union organizers negotiated collective bargaining agreements, sometimes without members present. They did everything. Union members let them.


Our Union adopted, by a vote of the members, a different organizing model. The old model was a ‘business agent’ model. We got by, but we never had enough business agents, organizers. Members needed to step up to fill the gaps. Several years ago We adopted a Member Organizer model. We are the members, the organizers.

No one knows the worksite like the worker: Us. We know the issues. We live and work the issues. We know that some issues are unique to our shop. We know that some issues are common to all offices.

Our members are the subject matter experts. We are the best witnesses in the Oregon Legislature when our legislators need to know more about the state of our services. We know our clients better than most. We know where the resources are and are not. We walk our parks and drive our highways every day. We know not only where the wildlife live, we know how many live there. We are our state’s best advocate. We can be our own best advocate.

There are more than a few who do not advocate, do not appreciate this new organizing model. Some still want their organizer to do the work of the Union. They want their money’s worth. This brings me back to the Union members of the past generations; those Union members who did not teach their kids about their Unions. I said that wanting their children to do other work was not the most important part of why they did not teach the Union.

What could be worse than not having a Union to stand by you, is having a union that does not hear you. A union that is not interested in what you think. Imagine having an automated job where the boss does not want your input. Add to that a union that collects your dues, bargains your contracts and decides whether or not to air your grievances without you.

The most important part of the story is they wanted their children to work where they had a say; where they could help create the product, the service. They wanted their inheritors to have the opportunity to create a better world, not just take orders. Those who did not teach their children about their union did not see the union as being about them. Those workers did not help create their union; they did not help organize their world.


Our Union wants your input. ODOT Local 730, SEIU 503, OPEU is always looking for more members to decide to become Member Organizers. Our Member Organizers act as shop stewards. We work in the Union’s legislative & executive bodies: General Council and the Board of Directors. Through CAPE our members work the political process. Member Organizers work out of state helping other workers find their voices. We need Member Organizers to work in our home towns and community actions centers.

I can tell you that working in our Union feels like community. Many folks going different directions, doing different jobs for the same purpose: to improve the lives of laborers. To create a better community, a better world.

If you are looking to create your world, we are looking for you. mac

Union Members Tell Management Latest Proposal is Bad Deal

12 ODOT Employees at the Flanders building spoke with Jason Tell, the ODOT Region 1 Manager and let him know that the latest management proposal was unfair and would send many folks back into poverty. In this picture Ellen Dennis, our shop steward, explains how this pay cut would affect folks in her building.

ODOT Coalition Report 1

ODOT Coalition Bargaining Report #1

On Monday, February 23rd our Union’s ODOT Coalition Bargaining Team met and opened negotiations with the State’s ODOT Coalition Team. Our Union was represented by 28 members from DMV, ODFW, ODOT, Forestry and OPRD. The Union bargaining Chairs are Kermit Meling (ODOT) and Bill Kinyoun (ODFW). The States Management bargaining teams spokesperson is Tom Perry from DAS. Thirteen other managers from the agencies also attended.

Kermit Meling kicked bargaining off with a short statement intended to frame the debate around our Union proposals. He asserted that compared to prior bargaining sessions the number of articles this time around is less and that our bargaining team had spent a lot of time paring down our proposals to concepts that our members feel most strongly about. Management seemed to appreciate the sentiment.

After the opening statements and introductions, the Union presented management with proposals from eleven articles and one letter of agreement. The improvements, if won, would include:
• improvements to ODOT steward language
• Posted list and updates for overtime lists for the coalition
• Asmall expansion of the meal allowance to machinists and auto techs in ODOT
• Additional meal allowance money for those working more than 16 hours in ODOT
• Clarified tent language for forestry employees so they would receive stipend when not in commercial lodging
• Cleans up the definition for official station for ODOT crews on per diem
• Expands DMV language to include ODOT and Forestry that when assigned away from normal work location they would be on work time unless new location is closer to employees home.
• Creates a car allowance for ODFW workers required to use their personal vehicles
• Add new language that would create a intra agency transfer list for DMV and force it to be pulled before opening competitive
• Proposes to close DMV field offices the day after Thanksgiving
• Fixes language that would allow DMV holiday language so workers wouldn’t be forced to work on actual holidays
• Allows Forestry seasonals to carry forward vacation accruals like ODFW, and also allows all seasonal employees to use their vacation in the agency in which it was accrued
• Gives employees a quicker response to vacation requests than the current fifteen days.
• Bring our ODFW employees to similar standards around scheduling that much of the rest of the coalition has. Also adds increased notice to out of town travel.
• Attempts to include some ODFW employees who currently are not paid as passengers to and from work trips.
• Adds language to training language to “promote career development” for coalition
• Puts the qualifier “no request should be arbitrarily denied” for educational and training requests in order to make the process fairer and more transparent
• Improves the current language for rotationals to make them more available and also to post them in advance so they are offered more transparently.
• Brings our Forestry Mechanics to the same tool reimbursement as our ODOT Mechanics
• Fixes the LOA on Work Capacity Testing for Forestry so employees do not pay out of pocket for exemptions

As you can see we had a lot to get through and management asked a lot of questions about the intentions behind some of the proposals. Members such as Cameron McGinnis (ODOT), Mike Johnson (ODOT), Bill Kinyoun (ODFW), Kermit Meling (ODOT), Dave Wells (Forestry), Eric Ollerenshaw (ODFW), Joe Sheahan (ODFW), Sonya Reichwein (DMV) and others helped explain the intention behind our proposals and clarified many of the finer points to Management.

We also let management know that we would have a few more articles that we planned on opening at the next negotiation session.

The Management bargaining team also brought proposals to the table. They had four articles with proposed changes and one new letter of agreement. Their proposals, if adopted would:
• Create a letter of agreement intended to fixing the holiday language for DMV employees so they would not be required to work on a holiday
• Create parallel language that is similar to the ODFW language for seasonal employees for carrying vacation accruals forward.
• Updates layoff language for Parks so Region 4 would be one geographic area.
• Changes and adds new geographic area for layoff language for Forestry to include new area for Tillamook Forest Center.
• Added new language in scheduling article for ODOT that would exempt switches from Monday-Friday and Tuesday-Saturday from protection around hours between work weeks and minimums for hours per each hundred and eight hour period.

Tom Perry, the Management spokesperson, also added that management proposing at Central Table a letter of agreement that would implement the abovementioned layoff language in the current biennium.

After asking some basic questions around the Management proposals we scheduled the next bargaining date and set the agenda for that bargaining session. The plan is to do bargaining at the same location, same time on March 9th. The Union bargaining team meets at the Salem Union Hall (1730 Commercial St SE, Salem) between 5 and 5:30 for a meal and discussion and then we drive over to the ODOT HR building (2775 19th St. SE, Salem) to start bargaining at 6:30.

The next session both sides will present any remaining proposals and we will discuss in depth our proposals above that are bolded (10.3ABE, 32.3, 33.3A, 36.3AC, 37.3E).

If you are interested in attending on March 9th please contact Troy Barnard at 503-830-1201 or barnardt@opeuseiu.org with any questions.

Coalition Bargaining

Coalition Bargaining will be on Monday, February 23rd. We will meet at the Union hall (1730 Commercial St SE, Salem Oregon) at 5 p.m. and be at the ODOT HR building by 6 p.m. If you can make it, or have questions my email is barnardt@opeuseiu.org
-Troy