SEIU Local 503 Files Unfair Labor Practice Complaint Alleging Board Negotiators
Refuse to Include First Oregon Undergraduates Ever to Organize in Ongoing Bargaining
A union representing 14 part-time recycling specialists at Portland
State University has filed an unfair labor practice complaint against
Chancellor George Pernsteiner and the Oregon State Board of Higher
Education for refusing to bargain about the recyclers as part of
negotiations over terms of a new contract for about 4,500 classified
employees at Portland State and six other campuses in the Oregon
University System.
The recyclers voted unanimously to joined SEIU Local 503 July 1 in a
unit clarification election conducted by the State Employment Relations
Board, which certified the union as bargaining agent for the recyclers
July 14. They are believed to be the first group of undergraduate
students to join a union in Oregon and one of the few in the nation.
Despite an ERB order declaring the recyclers are part of the 4,500
classified employee bargaining unit for the university system, Higher
Education negotiations have refused to take up bargaining over these
new employees during negotiations for the entire bargaining unit. The
complaint asks ERB to find the higher ed board in violation of state
law and order the board to negotiate with the 14 recyclers as part of
the current contract negotiations.
Negotiations, which are in mediation, have stalled over a demand by
Pernsteiner that classified employees take up to 24 unpaid furlough
days plus as many additional blocks of 15 unpaid furlough days as he
deems necessary over the next two years and his refusal to commit to
treating unionized workers no worse than administrators, managers and
other employees. The union is seeking terms for classified university
workers that are similar to those included in a recent settlement with
other state employees.
The recyclers approached the union early this year and the university
did not initially object to their inclusion in the unit after Local 503
petitioned ERB on their behalf in April. But as outlined in the
attached complain, university management told union officials and the
workers during the campaign that voting for the union could result in
the recyclers losing their jobs.
"Singling out these environmental workers is union-busting," said Marc
Nisenfeld, a development engineer at Portland State who is president of
the SEIU local there. "It sends a terrible message to these
undergraduates and given what they do to improve our environment it
flies in the face of President Wim Wievel's efforts to make PSU the nation's greenest university."