Those who are motivated to seek additional information about bargaining should consult the DCTU website at DCTU.org. The annoying password function has been removed so the site is open to all interested parties.

A discussion of the merits and pitfalls of the City's Retirement Incentive Ordinance will take place at the General Membership meeting on Tuesday, April 23. The discussion will start at 7:00PM sharp. There is a need to determine the will of the membership in this matter and whether there should be any appropriate action. Anyone with interest in this matter is urged to attend.

On Thursday, April 11th there was a well attended City budget hearing at Montgomery Park. This was the final hearing to take place before the Mayor releases his proposed budget at the end of April. Many community groups testified in the hope of averting the wholesale cutting of important programs. City employees were on hand as well including representatives from the forensic portion of the police bureau. The current City proposal is to cut forensics completely and hand in over to the county. This is one of the many City proposals which express a preference for cutting community services in order to preserve our top heavy management ratio. The hearing was crowded to capacity and more than 70 concerned citizens signed up to testify.

Strong contracting out language is good public policy. It shows the employer believes in the value of publicly delivered services, increases accountability in outside contracts, and saves money. While the DCTU’s first offer proposed changes to Article 6 that would strengthen protections for workers against contracting out, the City’s first proposal would gut, almost entirely, these important checks and balances. A sub-committee with representatives of the DCTU and City bargaining teams has formed to clarify the obstacles to compliance with current language.

After City Council?'s recent decision to support Paid Sick Days for Portland workers, you would expect the City?s bargaining team to think twice about attacking our sick leave benefit. But once again the City?s bargaining team is pushing language changes to make it easier to discipline a worker for taking sick leave. The City?s team proposed changes to Article 18 creating an indefinite sick leave probation period for any worker that exceeds the arbitrary limit of 64 hours of sick leave in a 12 month period. After 64 hours the supervisor is required to interview the worker about their sick leave, yet another intrusion of our privacy. What?s more, the City team?s proposal lists a host of indicators of sick leave misuse that includes using vacation time in lieu of sick leave. Intimidating members out of using their bargained sick leave not only violates our workers rights?it?s just plain bad for public health when city employees show up to work sick.

Overtime protections encourage employers to staff appropriately to get the job done during regular working hours by assigning a premium for working extended hours. According to the City’s first proposal for Article 9, the current comp time hour limit would not only decrease from 80 to 40 hours, it would no longer be a rolling bank of hours--and cashing out these hours would require the City’s approval. While the City’s bargaining team is going after our comp time, they are also pushing for concessions in scheduling that could reduce our overtime accrual. Proposed changes to Article 7 would allow your supervisor to change your schedule from week to week to flex your hours--for even just a day--if you have a late night meeting or an early morning construction job, thus avoiding paying overtime. Your schedule will be a moving target, without the predictability your family relies on. This is a quality of life issue for workers and their families.

The City has announced a projected general fund shortfall of 21.5 million dollars for next year and Mayor Hales has directed bureaus to prepare budgets for the next fiscal year reflecting 10% cuts. In fact, the City?s chief negotiator explained during bargaining that the City is, ?looking through the couch cushions for savings.? Is that how OMF found the money to afford Yvonne Deckard?s $300 an hour double-dipping consulting contract? Or the extra 33 million dollars they?ve had to spend to fix SAP? It?s time to get active and fight for a fair budget that preserves staffing levels so that we can continue to provide the services our community depends on.