Back to Home Print This Page Email This Page

OUS Bargaining Update and Action Alert 8/10/09

Share |

Time to take action!
2 Days of Mediation Produce Only Frustration -- Chancellor Apparently Not Getting Message!?

Place Your Call. NOW!

Management Bargainers Keep All of Worst Proposals, Ignore New Student Worker/Recyclers at PSU, Will Only Give Verbal Assurances of "Shared Sacrifice," and All But Ignore the Call for State Workers in OUS not to be Treated Worse than Other State Workers in Oregon!
After our first two days of mediation, Management's position on all of the critical issues still on the table has barely changed.

We say: "Give OUS workers parity with our brothers and sisters working in state agencies. Their settlement was fair given our state's current economic conditions."

But OUS is still demanding even greater sacrifice from us, asking for up to 24 furlough days and a 2-year step freeze! OUS is still insisting on UNLIMITED Furloughs -- on top of what we negotiate at the table!

---

We say: "Bargain over the wages, hours, and working conditions for ALL of the OUS employees in our bargaining unit -- including the newest ones."

But OUS continues to refuse to bargain over the student workers from the PSU Recycling Program who just last month voted unanimously to join SEIU 503. Now after waging  a virulent election campaign against the Union, OUS continues to stall and use delaying tactics that verge on union-busting, failing to recognize these workers' free decision to be Union! We have filed an official Unfair Labor Practice complaint with the Employment Relations Board, but we call on all union members to join us in defeating these anti-Union tactics.

---

We say: "Assure us we won't be the only OUS employees asked to take the hit!" When it was announced the Governor acknowledged the balanced approach the DAS settlement took. "It represents the spirit of shared sacrifice and mutual effort that will get us through these hard times," he said. "I am very proud of our unions and their members for doing their part in this difficult budget environment."

But OUS refuses to provide a commitment we can count on that managers and others will share in the sacrifice, offering only mealy-mouthed assurances -- and weak ones, at that.

OUS Denies Contract Extension
An indication of how far management seems prepared to go to ram these unfair and outrageous proposals down the throats of the thousands of SEIU members is the recent announcement -- through the mediator -- that OUS will not agree to a one-month contract extension. The actual impact of denying a contract extension is limited. A legal requirement to maintain "status quo" prevents changes in workers' wages, hours, and working conditions. However, OUS has routinely agreed to contract extensions in the past, so this symbolic denial seems calculated to create an ominous tone. This threat will not change our resolve to win a fair contract that provides parity with other state workers and fairness within OUS!

Union files Second Unfair Labor Practice Charge
As noted above, OUS negotiators are refusing to bargain with members of our newest group of represented employees -- 14 part-time recyclers at Portland State. The union has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the Employee Relations Board over this action. Failure to recognize and negotiate with any duly certified group of represented employees amounts to a challenge to the representation rights of all of us. It is an effort at union-busting, plain and simple, and cannot be tolerated.

SEIU Local 503 filed for a unit clarification election on behalf of these employees, who are also undergraduate students at Portland State, earlier this year after they approached the union seeking representation. OUS management was notified and raised no objections and ERB scheduled an election. At that point management did try to intercede, objecting to ERB and waging a scare campaign against SEIU 503 worthy of some of the worst Union-busters in the private sector. But ERB ruled that the objection period had lapsed and the employees, undeterred by threats from OUS, voted 9-0 to join SEIU 503. They are the first undergraduate student employees to gain union recognition and we are proud they chose to align themselves with us. We now need to show the university system that being part of a union means solidarity -- "if you take one of us on, you take all of us on."


CALL THE CHANCELLOR, NOW!
503-725-5703 Portland
541-346-5703 Eugene
541-737-3636 Corvallis
If Chancellor Pernsteiner and his bargaining team haven't yet gotten the message that we will not settle for what they have put on the table -- then we have to get LOUDER to be heard! If you haven't called yet, please join the hundreds of others who have already made calls, and participate in the activities on your campus designed to get management to change their attitude. If you have called, please call again!

When you call, tell the Chancellor:

"Give us parity with other state workers in Oregon; stop trying to force through your Unlimited Furlough proposal; bargain for ALL SEIU members, including the newest group of recyclers; and give us solid assurances that we're going to be making shared sacrifices with managers and unclassified throughout the system!"

Talk with your co-workers. Get organized! If we stand together, we WILL win!

Your SEIU Bargaining Team

Share |