Employees Laud Historic First Contract

Employees Laud Historic First Contract

Employees at the Rosemont Treatment Center and School in Southeast Portland have negotiated an historic first contract with Morrison Child and Family Services after six months of collective bargaining.

After a near-unanimous ratification, about 60 workers at the facility for troubled girls gained an immediate average wage increase of 3.63% and improved sick leave, holiday leave and bereavement leave as well as key improvements on health and safety issues affecting them and the girls in their charge and a range of new workplace rights.

Jessica Selser checks her chant sheet and Gina Montenaro holds her picket sign high.

"I don’t have the words to describe how this day has changed my life," said one exultant member of the bargaining team, Saige Gracie.

"So many hours of effort, heartbreak, fury and sweat. My heart is on fire.

"We have real rights and real equality. All of my deep breaths from this point on belong to the people who held my hand though this process. Congratulations. Viva la Revolution."

The contract establishes staffing levels that do not compromise the therapeutic care of clients, specifically requiring at least three staff members to be scheduled for each dorm at all times absent a written explanation, and gives staffers the right to summon police if they encounter a situation that would likely lead to assault or injury.

Other health and safety provisions will alert residential skills specialists to the presence of infectious disease, provide accommodation for pregnant staff members, allow extra breaks after escalated incidents when coverage is available, and give workers input on a committee that discusses such issues as better and nutritious food options and sanitation.

The contract also spells out job protections including a grievance procedure to dispute contract violations; just-cause language and a "progressive" system of discipline; access to personnel files with a right to respond and remove negative comments after a year; and a set of rights to union participation and representation.

In addition to a wage scale that includes a Step System (which comes on top of an increase Morrison instituted last year during the campaign), workers won the right to use sick leave for illness, injury, mental health, medical appointments for immediate family members (including domestic partners), seven paid holidays with 1.8 times regular pay for those required to work, and three days of paid bereavement leave for designated family members.

The contract guarantees at least two hours of pay (a stipend for maintenance) if employees are called in, creates a fair process for filling in for those out sick, affords senior workers bumping rights in the event of a layoff, establishes seniority and availability as decisive factors for filling vacancies within classification, and allows employees up to a year of personal leave as well as the right to take leaves for medical issues, military service, or union work.

Rosemont employees and their community supporters pressed hard for a compensation and benefit package that would alleviate chronic staff turnover at the facility, the largest secure residential treatment center for troubled teen girls in the Pacific Northwest.

"The best part of this contract is that it will give us the ability to consistently give the girls what they need," said another bargainer, Charlie Ashton. "Higher staffing ratios will be enforced, so staff won't have to worry about work when we're not at work. We're a huge step towards a living wage, and we are still united after over a year of working towards this contract!

"We won! Congrats to us. By staying together as a unified team, we have improved the living situation of these girls."