Central Table Update: 

On February 22 and March 1, our SEIU 503 central table bargaining team met with management to continue making our initial proposals to the state.

In these sessions, we gave management the rest of our proposals for economic justice. With so many state workers continuing to receive incorrect paychecks due to the Workday debacle, our union team proposed that the state be required to issue penalty pay for underpayments, cover actual costs incurred by workers for those underpayments, and create strict timelines for the state to repay wages owed to employees. We also proposed differential increases including improvements to the multilingual differential and a way for workers with bilingual skills to request to receive a differential for those.

We also passed the state proposals for union strength to keep our union strong and able to bargain from a position of power. These proposals would give workers better access to their union representatives, improve new employee orientations, increase paid steward training time, and more.

The state gave us several proposals which mostly dealt with small, housekeeping items. They also passed a proposal to make it easier for management to contract out the work of SEIU members. The state hasn’t yet responded to our economic proposals.

Our power at the bargaining table comes from workers taking action together. Sign the bargaining petition today to show the state that we are united and ready to fight for a great contract!

Because we’ve been signing our strike pledges, purpling up in our worksites, and because more than 1,500 of us showed up last week at our rally in Salem, we have finally seen some real movement from management in their economic proposals.

This Wednesday, management proposed a package that included COLAs of 5.1% on September 1, 2023, and another 5.1% on September 1, 2024. They also proposed several improvements to differentials including increasing the Essential Worker Inclement Weather/Hazardous Conditions pay differential to $3 per hour and expanding it to anyone who has to work in person during these events (including ODOT coalition workers). In this package they continue to propose moving to a biweekly pay schedule, which management claims will help resolve many of the issues related to Workday.

In addition to receiving this package from management, our team also made proposals dealing with one of our main priorities in these negotiations: safe and equitable workplaces. We are continuing to propose that workers who experience discrimination or harassment on the job can address those issues using our grievance procedure. We’re also proposing the creation of a joint labor-management committee that can review hiring, promotion, and disciplines—as well as discrimination complaints—to look for patterns of bias and make recommendations for solutions.

While it is true that the actions we’ve taken together as workers (such as the strike pledge and our June 8 rally) have started to have real impact in these negotiations, the proposals we’re seeing from management are still not where they need to be to address members’ priorities: economic justice, equitable and safe workplaces, sustainable workloads, and keeping our union strong.

We need to keep the pressure on. This is why workers across the state are organizing informational pickets at their worksites on June 28th. We need as many of us as possible helping to organize these—sign up for a picket captain training today to learn how to have an informational picket where you work. And, if you haven’t already, please sign our strike pledge to help show management we are serious about winning a contract state workers deserve.

In Unity,

SEIU 503 

Rally, Strike Pledge, and Informational Pickets

Wow! Our ears are still ringing with the sounds of more than 1,500 State workers who rallied at the State Capitol yesterday! Our voices were heard loud and clear in Salem, and now that we have management’s attention, we need to work hard to continue building our power to  win the contract State workers deserve.

As you may have already heard, this week, your Central Table Bargaining Team decided to launch a Strike Pledge. This is an important next step that shows Management we mean business and will do whatever it takes to win a contract that provides economic justice, safe and equitable workplaces, sustainable workloads, and a strong union. Sign the Strike Pledge now to keep our union strong and show Management that we stand together. Sign the Strike Pledge

In addition to our strike pledge, state workers will be informational picketing at worksites across the entire state on June 28th. This is one of the best ways we can show management that we are united, committed, and ready to do whatever it takes to win the contract we deserve. You can sign up for a training to learn how to organize a picket at your worksite here. (More trainings will be added soon!)

Central Table Update

Before we give the update on the Central Table, we have big news: The ODOT Coalition has settled! This means all of the coalition bargaining tables have settled, and that all focus and attention now turns to winning the best possible contract at our Central Table.

This week, we received a package from management that contained some pieces we could not agree to, including holding firm on their proposal to reduce job-postings to 5 days and increase their ability to contract out our work. We will continue to counter management’s proposals as we fight for meaningful raises and language that will enable us to maintain and build a strong union in our workplaces.

In the past month, bargaining team members made whirlwind Roadshow visits across the state, from the coast to Southern Oregon, Eastern Oregon and the Portland/Salem/Eugene areas, stopping in dozens of worksites across almost every county in the state to connect with hundreds of state workers. The team heard about members’ priorities (including the overwhelming need for a strong COLA), answered questions, encouraged their colleagues to come to this week’s rally and get more involved in bargaining.

State Employees will Rally at the Capitol on June 8th!

Join us at the Oregon Capitol to rally on June 8th to fight for real wage increases, workplace safety, manageable workloads, and to end the State workforce crisis! Over 10,000 of us signed the petition, now it’s time to show up in person to send management a message that a Cost-of-Living Adjustment less than inflation is not acceptable. RSVP today! 

Central Table Update

Our central table team met with state management both last week and this week. At this session, the state responded to our proposal to raise the minimum pay in our contract to $22/hour by giving us a proposal that would bring up the wage floor to $19.62 by the end of the contract. While this is a step towards our proposal, it doesn’t go far enough and it only addresses recruitment problems, not retention. Management also offered a package proposal with six contract changes, most of which were changes in state management’s favor.

Our team gave the state proposals that require them to produce the biannual salary and benefit report by October of the year before we bargain our contract. Our proposal would also give our union the ability to review comparison data and have input into how the state conducts the market analysis. Additionally, we passed a proposal to move all language in the contract related to CDLs into one article so they are easy to find. 

We rejected management’s proposal to cut internal job posting requirements from 10 business days to five calendar days. Instead, our team is proposing to maintain our current contract language of 10 business days.  

Specials Bargaining Update

This week, we had two special guests from the child support technical services team at DOJ (CSTS), who shared their personal stories about the impact of current language around work outside of regular or on-call hours. Because they support critical infrastructure affecting children, they often take work-related calls at all hours, often between 3 and 6 am, seven days a week. The team is working to strengthen a memorandum of understanding for this group into a letter of agreement. 

We are continuing to work through proposals related to filling vacancies, background checks, and others involving the creation of a new agency DELC. 

Management also pushed back on our proposed language around lead worker assignments, which we believe will make the process more fair and equitable. 

 
SEIU 503 members speak up for a fair budget

Oregon’s legislative budget committee is on the road this month, holding hearings around the state to take feedback on the state budget. The first hearing was last Saturday in Portland, and we had 20 SEIU members in attendance alongside over 300 other Oregonians who came to testify. We had two members deliver testimony: Kathleen Lamar and Juan Sanchez. We also had multiple members interviewed by TV reporters. Find out about future roadshows here.   

Monday: State of the Fair Shot Agenda

SEIU 503 is a founding member of the Fair Shot for All coalition, which works to advance racial and economic justice in Oregon. On Monday (4/17), we’ll receive an update on the 2023 Fair Shot Agenda, which includes affirming reproductive and gender justice in the wake of the fall of Roe, addressing the housing and homelessness crisis, fixing our public defender shortage, and increasing language access for Indigenous people. Register here and join us via Zoom on Monday. 

Central Table Update:

We had a big day at the bargaining table this week. Management finally presented us with their opening economic offer: a 4.4% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in December of this year and a 2.3% COLA in December 2024. They also proposed moving to a biweekly pay schedule. They have not given us any responses to our proposals for longevity pay, raising the pay floor to $22/hour by the end of the contract, or any of our differential improvement proposals.

Our Central Table team passed a number of proposals to the state, including ones dealing with safe and equitable workplaces. These proposals would improve remote work language; allow workers to use up to three days of ‘critical incident leave’ (for employees who experience direct threats or trauma on the job); add preventative care leave. In addition, we gave management a proposal that would create a labor/management taskforce that can investigate claims of harassment and discrimination. We also passed a sustainable workloads proposal, which would create a paid differential for those with extremely high workloads and would restrict management’s ability to discipline these workers for performance-related reasons.

In all, we passed 33 proposals this week to make our workplaces safer and more equitable, and to address the overwhelming workloads so many of us experience.

Have you signed the petition yet? 

Our union’s power at the bargaining table and our ability to win strong contracts comes from workers taking action together. If the state doesn’t see that we are united and ready to do whatever it takes to win a great contract this year, they won’t have a reason to offer us a better deal. Sign the bargaining petition now to who the state we are united and ready to fight for a great contract!

Specials Bargaining Update: 

We had a productive meeting with management this week, where we passed more than 10 proposals.  

We made proposals to prioritize equity in rotational and hiring processes, adding flexibility and advance notice to work schedule articles, and expanded upon our background check LOAs, moving them from into the contract with consistent, equitable steps that occur after a failed background check.  

We also proposed improvements to our lead worker letter of agreement (LOA) which includes increased opportunities for workers to be part of the leadwork rotation. Additionally, we made proposals to ensure fair processes for filling vacancies prioritizing internal hires and seniority. We TA’d a proposal removing an exception for ODVA employees that, in the past, has limited their work schedule options.   

Additionally, we strengthened a few memoranda of understanding by moving them to LOAs (adding flexibility to work schedule articles and expanded background check procedures). 

Institutions

This week, we held our second bargaining meeting with state management; we are very excited that the 2023 bargaining campaign is well under way!

To start, we passed four proposals for new letters of agreement addressing the critical issues of recruitment and retention of clinical classification positions, recognize the duties of people “in charge” when management and lead workers are not on the floor and create a task force to review ALL behavioral health classification to ensure they are correctly classified.

We passed two proposals around boots and protective eyewear for workers in facilities and warehouse departments, as well as a proposal for Pendleton Cottage to address same-day vacation leave.

Management provided us with their positions on a few of the existing letters of agreement (LOA), including a proposal to incorporate the 13-hour, 20-minute LOA into the contract, and proposed a housekeeping change around timekeeping.

• Call to Action! Become a CAT! March 16th is the next meeting and the link to the meeting is here.

Specials (the HECC is part of the Specials Coalition) 

We are excited to be well under way with our 2023 bargaining campaign!

We passed several proposals this week, one that added inclusive language around blood donations and community action. We also passed a proposal that included additional leave with pay and, for those ineligible to donate blood, the ability to use leave time to contribute to our community in other ways.

We also passed a proposal to expand work schedules for the ODVA, and proposed language in a new letter of agreement (LOA) to provide additional options for workers at the Oregon School for the Deaf. It would enable them to decide whether to take their paychecks over a 9-, 10-, or 12-month schedule so they can choose how to be paid in a way that works best for them. We are currently reviewing management’s three proposals – all of which are around filling vacancies.

• Call to Action! Become a CAT! Our next meeting is Tuesday, March 7, and every other Tuesday after that. Contact your Organizer for more info.

ODOT

We are excited to be well under way with our 2023 ODOT coalition bargaining campaign!

We met for the second time with management, where we continued to pass proposals on a variety of issues, including commercial driving license training and reimbursement, parks department boot allowance education, safety show-up at ODOT and differential pay for forests dispatch.

Additionally, we passed proposals on parks and recreation department schedules, agriculture and water resource access to policies and increasing rest periods for ODF after 14-day assignments. We also passed a proposal on vacation carry-over limits from 40 to 100 hours for back-to-back seasonal workers.

Management passed two proposals on vacancies and layoffs (ODF).

Coming up: 

• Our next bargaining session with management is March 9, where our team will make new proposals on boots, uniforms, and safety issues.​​​​​​

• Call to Action! Become a CAT! Our next ODOT CAT meeting is March 14. Contact your Organizer for more info.

Human Services

We are excited that our 2023 bargaining campaign is under way! We passed two proposals at this week’s meeting. The first is geared toward clarifying language around sublocal LMCs: expanded paid time for staff notetakers and prep time.

The second proposal would add language to provide for more equitable education/training for staff, clarify language around time spent in job rotation that would count towards trial service, and expanding management’s obligation to provide employees with further explanation if their job rotation was denied based on operational needs.

Management had no proposals to offer and said they would not have any further to present to us at this time. They did ask questions about the Joint Wellness Committee but were unsure about who was on the committee and did not know if there were represented employees involved.

The remainder of the meeting was spent working on safety and health proposals.

Calls to Action!

• It makes a huge difference to have observers at these meetings – thank you to all who were able to attend this week! Twenty-five of you joined us and we would LOVE to see more of you tuning in as bargaining continues! Mark your calendars for March 16th, 2-6pm, and join this link.

• Become a CAT! Join us for the Contract Action Team meetings for the Human Services Coalition! Meetings are held on the 3rd Friday of each month at 12pm. Here’s the Zoom Link.

Institutions

The Institutions Bargaining Team had our inaugural meeting with management this week, making it clear what our safety priorities are as we bargain for a great contract.

We passed a few initial proposals around differentials. We were pleased to see that management agreed with most of our positions on existing Letters of Agreement (LOAs). Management passed three proposals focused on housekeeping and adding reimbursement of scrubs purchases for registered nurses and dental assistants.

We are feeling #UnionStrong right now and fired up and ready for our next meeting with management on February 28th. We plan to pass additional proposals then.

Human Services

This week, our Human Services Coalition Table held our first meeting with management, delivering a powerful opening statement that drives home the experiences we have endured since the early days of the pandemic, and how the lack of staffing is affecting not only the ability for us to do the jobs that make Oregon work, but also impact the quality of services we can provide for the people of our great state. Read the full statement.

The Human Services Coalition has been working hard since November to prepare our initial proposals on 12 Articles and Letters of Agreement, including housekeeping changes and highlighting the participation of members in decision making via committees. management provided only one proposal: extending trial service of HSS3 from six months to nine months.

We are ready for this campaign and are looking forward to having members attend future coalition meetings with management to show Union power. Right now, we want to hear from workers in Human Services Specialists 3 positions about your experiences with trial service. If you are an HSS3 worker, please complete this brief form.

Specials  (the HECC is part of the Specials Coalition) 

Our 2023 bargaining campaign is in full swing, with the first meeting of the Specials Coalition held this week. In our opening statement, we emphasized the need for management to step up and fix lingering issues in the workplace: high workloads, a lack of staff and safer work environments.

The meeting went smoothly and we discussed the format we will use to share our proposals.

We talked about the existing Letters of Agreement (LOAs), which are an enforceable part of our union contract that are published along with the main contract. In future sessions, we will work to come to agreement on which LOAs will continue, which will be modified, and which will be allowed to expire.

We have a lot of work to do in the next few months and will have much more to share with you and get you engaged to show management that we are #UnionStrong and that We Make Oregon Work.

ODOT

Our bargaining campaign is in full swing! Last week on February 8th, our ODOT Coalition Table held our first meeting with management. Our ODOT bargaining team has 23 delegates including workers from ODFW, DMV, ODOT, Forestry, Parks, DOGAMI, Water Resources, and Agriculture.

At this meeting, our bargaining team shared an opening statement with the state where we laid out our coalition’s bargaining priorities, which include improving safety and addressing the recruitment and retention crisis in so many of our agencies.

Management’s bargaining team passed a proposal dealing with existing Letters of Agreement (LOAs). These LOAs are an enforceable part of our union contract and are published along with the main contract.

We are developing our response to management’s LOA proposals, and we are discussing issues around CDL reimbursements, ODF work capacity testing, and differentials.

Management also gave our team a proposal that would eliminate the current policy that requires open OWRD/OWEB positions are floated to internal candidates first.

We are looking forward to our next session on February 23 where we will dig into issues of safety, boots and uniforms, and how the state can better support the well-being of the state employees in our coalition who do hard and necessary work for the people of Oregon.

On Wednesday, February 8th, our SEIU 503 central table bargaining team met with the state to deliver an opening statement and pass our initial economic proposals. (Most coalition bargaining delegates were also able to attend virtually as observers.) In our statement, led by our central table co-chairs Ibrahim Coulibaly and Austin Folnagy, and 503’s executive director, Melissa Unger, we began to lay out the case for why our upcoming union contract must reflect our union’s bargaining priorities: economic justice, safe and equitable workplaces, sustainable workloads, and union security.

The opening economic proposal we gave the state includes: 

• 11% Cost-of-living adjustment effective July 1, 2023

• 9% Cost-of-living adjustment effective July 1, 2024

• No state worker is paid less than $22 an hour by the end of the contract

• State pays our entire health insurance premium

• $1 per hour differential for all in-person work

• Longevity differentials for long-term employees

• Adding Indigenous People’s Day as a paid holiday

• Paid Leave Oregon premium fully paid by the state

• Increasing vacation accruals

See the opening statement slide deck.

This is just the beginning of our negotiations, and we have a long way before our contract expires on June 30. In the coming weeks, our central table team will continue to review the thousands of survey responses members returned and will be making additional proposals to the state that deal with our non-economic bargaining priorities. Our coalition bargaining tables have begun meeting this week (ODOT on Feb. 9th, Institutions Feb. 14th, and Human Services and Specials Feb. 16th).​​​