DAS Alert from June 17th

This week there were several positive developments in DAS bargaining, though the central obstacle to a contract settlement—the State’s continued insistence that state workers shoulder more than our fair share of the sacrifice necessary to address the budget crisis—remains unresolved.

Following two more days of mediation in the aftermath of the State’s withdrawal of its premature impasse declaration, we have achieved two significant goals:

• State negotiators have withdrawn their demand for pay cuts in lieu of furlough days for some workers, including most in 24/7 institutions, and motor carrier enforcement officers in ODOT. This was the proposal that provoked our filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the State Employment Relations Board, contending that the State had breached the Ground Rules by issuing a new demand after the deadline. We can now say confidently that there will be no actual reduction in any member’s pay rate during the next two years, which is a significant victory.

• We signed off on a letter of agreement extending recall rights for employees who are on layoff now or who will be laid off during the life of the next two-year contract from two to three years. We hope and pray that anyone laid off will be back sooner than later, but given the current economic climate this represents a new and important protection for members already in considerable distress.

Three of our four Coalitions — Human Services, ODOT and Specials — have also successfully concluded bargaining (ODOT at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning). The fourth, Institutions, will be back at it tonight.

In coalition bargaining, members have gained a number of advances in areas like scheduling, reimbursement and union rights and fought back a number of management-sponsored take-away proposals. Details outlining changes in these agreements will be on the Coalition Bargaining Updates pages:

DHS: http://www.seiu503.org/state/DHS/default.aspx
ODOT: http://www.seiu503.org/state/odot/default.aspx
Specials: http://www.seiu503.org/state/Specials/default.aspx
Institutions: http://www.seiu503.org/state/Institutions/default.aspx

As most of you probably know, our success in reversing the impasse declaration and progress at the table comes after some promising news from the Legislature, which continues to hammer out details of the 2009-11 budget following crucial passage of about $770 in new revenue from wealthy Oregonians and profitable large corporations.

This has been a cornerstone of our lobbying efforts. It means that the final budget will likely provide the fiscal parameters to support a compromise settlement, but the fight will not be over when the legislature adjourns!

We expect the State will declare impasse again at the earliest possible moment—probably in late June, thus returning to bargaining by brinkmanship — restarting the clock on the Governor’s nuclear option of implementation. We will continue to fight for a negotiated settlement that protects our steps and minimizes the number of furlough days.

Members and supporters who turned out to our march and rally June 7 made a big difference. Now we need to refine and ramp up our message. Our contract ends June 30 and we will be organizing worksite actions all across the state that day.

We return to mediation Monday. Watch for details of our June 30th actions.

Final ODOT Coalition Report

We started bargaining for the ODOT Coalition on February 23rd 2009. We have bargained every other Monday night since. Last night we tentatively agreed on the outstanding issues left at the coalition table. This will allow us to focus our energy on the statewide campaign around central table bargaining. This tentative agreement for the ODOT Coalition is an important step forward, but there is still much work to do to fight off furloughs and other take aways.

Before we move on to the next fight, it is important to acknowledge the work of our fabulous bargaining delegates whose persistence, thoughtfulness and time made these improvements possible:

Bill Kinyoun (ODFW – Bargaining Chair), Kermit Meling (ODOT – Bargaining Chair),
Betty Huskey (ODOT), Mike Scott (ODOT), Kevin Cole (ODF), Dave Wells (ODF), Katy Powers (DMV), Sonya Reichwein (DMV), Dave Judkins (ODFW), Eric Ollerenshaw (ODFW), Doreen Vargas (DMV), Joe Lamont (ODOT), Katey Peterson (DMV), Angie Mittelstaedt (OPRD), John Ponce (OPRD), Mike Johnson (ODOT), Lee Erickson (ODOT), Joe Sheahan (ODFW), Bart Cotta (ODOT), Cameron McGinnis (ODOT), Doug Case (ODFW), Ann Madsen (OPRD), Rebecca Simmons (OPRD), Lorrie Schaefer (ODOT), Bryan Koehn (ODF)

Also, special thanks to other members who showed up week after week and made huge contributions at the table: Kirk Spindler (ODOT), Pete Wilde (ODOT), Roy Ware (DMV), Lou Bumgarner (DMV), Shirley Wait (ODOT), Jim Harney (OPRD), Jerry Noble (ODOT), Jay Burkert (ODOT), Jim Cooper (ODOT), Amy Regimbal (ODOT), Rose Halseth (DMV) and many, many others.

Below is a summary of the progress made at ODOT Coalition Bargaining:

• ODOT - Add Machinist and Autotechs to meal allowance
• ODOT - Increased meal allowance by 5 dollars ($17 total) for shifts that last 16 hours or more
• Coalition - Changed penalty pay language to 7 calendar days instead of 5 workdays
• ODOT/DMV – Fixes holiday language for holidays that fall on days off/weekends
• Forestry/ODOT – Allows seasonal employees to carry over vacation from season to season
• ODOT/DMV – Expanded penalty pay in a letter of agreement to include work schedule changes
• ODFW – Adds reasonable notice for overnight travel language
• ODFW – Includes change to make lunches near middle of work shift
• ODFW – Creates mechanism for employees to ensure at least 10 hours between shifts
• Coalition – Expands training requests to include career development language
• Coalition – Adds language to education requests to ensure either approval or reason for denial
• Coalition – Posts list of rotational opportunities fourteen (14) days prior to closing date when they use open announcements.
• Parks – Expands pro-rated boot reimbursement language to seasonal and part time employees
• ODOT – Adds Machinist and Autotechs to list of eligible employees for safety glass reimbursement, and allows Machinist and Autotechs to use tool reimbursement for purchasing raingear. This language was moved in from a letter of agreement as well
• Forestry – Increases mechanic reimbursement from two-hundred and seventy-five dollars ($275) annually to seven-hundred dollars ($700) per biennium
• DMV – Letter of agreement to make sure Saturday DMV offices are closed on the actual holiday AND the observed holiday in next biennium. Allows employee to use leave or adjust schedule for additional closure day. This will effect July 4th, 2009 and Christmas 2010 and New Years 2011.
• ODFW – New language in letter of agreement for Ocean Salmon and Columbia River Program (OSCRP) that says employees on flexible schedules will have their schedules posted for the next week by 5 p.m. Thursday. It also creates a tracking mechanism over a year period to see how often the posted schedule is changed for the following week and a report back at September 2010 labor management for recommendations


If you have any specific questions please let me know.

-Troy Barnard
ODOT Coalition Organizer