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.