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Vol 2, Issue 10

Joe DiNicola, President SEIU Local 503, OPEU

May 18, 2006

    With 37,000 members and bargaining units in every corner of Oregon, nearly every week SEIU members sit across the table from management to hammer out contract terms for better wages, affordable health care, a secure retirement and dignity and respect on the job. Members step up everywhere we work to keep employers honest and contract terms fair. Every community large and small in Oregon relies on the work we do. When members bargain contracts we support each other to make sure management remembers, "Oregon works because we work."

    This issue of President Joe’s Journal celebrates the latest victories won by member-led bargaining teams in Pendleton and Ontario. It doesn’t matter whether there are 20 members in an SEIU local or 20,000. The only way we can win for all working families is to stand together.

In this Issue: Ontario Police Win • Congratulations City of Pendleton • Solidarity in Pendleton • eNews Flash: Accountability and SEIU on 60 Minutes

Stronger Together,
Joe DiNicola, President
SEIU Local 503, OPEU

Ontario Police Win

     SEIU Local 503, OPEU members with the Ontario Police Department reached a tentative agreement last week. Elected bargaining team members Steve Mallea, Melody Weir and Greg Bakken worked hard to preserve health benefits and win a fair raise for every worker. The new three-year contract establishes a cap on member health care premium payments. Pay raises for all workers in each of the next three years also include adjustments to bring officers closer to market.

     Ontario Police Officers Association members stood firm and resisted the City of Ontario’s attempts to roll back overtime and call-back language. Provisions in the new contract also show respect for hard-working front-line workers with compensated meal breaks and protect workers from loss of pay due to seniority credits when they promote.

     With 24 members, including patrol officers, detectives, dispatch telecommunications workers and an ordinance control officer, Ontario Police Officers Association is one of the smaller SEIU bargaining units. Workers in Ontario stood together to hold the line on health care premiums in the first year of the new contract and protected worker premiums in the future with a defined limit on how much health care contributions are allowed to increase during each year of the contract. This is a huge victory for SEIU workers everywhere.

     Residents of Ontario, Oregon are used to leading the way. They get up an hour earlier than the rest of Oregon because they live in a time zone that is one hour ahead. The city’s slogan is: "Where Oregon Begins." Founded in June 1883 by four developers who anticipated the planned route of the railroad, the city was named after the home of one of the developers who hailed from the Canadian province of Ontario.

     This largest city in Malheur County lies along the Snake River just across the border from Idaho. Russet potatoes, sugar beets and onions make the biggest contribution to the economy in and around Ontario. Halfway between Portland and Salt Lake City on Interstate 84, Ontario’s growing retail-based economy attracts shoppers from the entire region and from Idaho's Payette County, especially nearby Payette and Fruitland. The lack of a sales tax in Oregon entices shoppers; a growing list of retailers see that as a reason to relocate from Idaho communities.

     Workers in this Oregon community also benefit from the victory of SEIU members who fought hard for all working families to pass a ballot measure that increased the minimum wage. Every worker in Ontario now benefits from a minimum wage that is 40% higher than the one paid across the river in Idaho.

     Congratulations to front line SEIU members in Ontario! We all do better when we stand together.

Congratulations City of Pendleton Members

     Each worker will see $100 added to every step of each pay range in all three years of the new contract for SEIU Local 503, OPEU City of Pendleton workers. “A flat $100 raise for each City of Pendleton worker at every step helps close the gap between the highest and lowest paid workers,” says SEIU bargaining team member, Kathy Ward. Kathy has worked for the City of Pendleton for ten years and runs the wastewater treatment lab. She and bargaining team members Mike Wagner and Mark Ashley all agree: The price of gas and milk and bread goes up the same for everyone. One worker said, "This is the best contract I can remember."

     The City claimed a budget crisis would limit raises to less than 2%; workers settled the contract with raises equivalent to 3.5%. Fairness for all workers was a prime goal of SEIU members. Since managers are paid at a higher rate, they would have received more of the budget dollars with a percentage raise. City of Pendleton members chose to fight for a flat raise to shift more contract money to workers instead of management. In another move for fairness, Pendleton workers who must be certified will all move up one pay range and continue to get steps on their anniversary dates.

     The new contract maintains the current level of insurance benefits for all workers. SEIU members also blocked the City’s efforts to weaken overtime, layoff and grievance language and raised the limit on accrued vacation to 200 hours, 40 more than the last contract allowed. Changes in contract language on trial service, performance review standards, and a new system for Water Department routine checks and on-call work were all improved. Also, letters of discipline must be removed from personnel files on specified dates.

    City of Pendleton members fought for and won respect and dignity on the job. Workers’ union rights were strengthened. The City must provide notice to our union and ensure rights for workers displaced by contracting out. SEIU members at the City of Pendleton voted to ratify the new contract with only one "no" vote. The vote was held at a BBQ and, as everyone in Oregon should know, Pendleton is the place to be for BBQ.

     Pendleton got its name in 1868, the same year voters made it the Umatilla county seat. Ranchers and cowboys gathered in the fall of 1910 to celebrate the harvest and showcase their skills. All city stores closed. A record-setting crowd came to that first Pendleton "Round-Up." Since then, hundreds of volunteers each year show how community pride and spirit turned Oregon's first rip-roaring Western rodeo into an international event.

     The world's best cowboy athletes thrill the crowd with traditional rodeo bronco saddle riding, bull dogging, steer roping, calf roping, team roping, bull riding and bareback riding in a Professional Rodeo Cowboy's Association (PRCA) sanctioned competition. In 1997, the event was entered into the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. Known simply as “The Round-Up,” this weeklong festival celebrates the cowboy way of life during the second full week of September when crowds nearly triple the size of Pendleton. The Round-Up is a wonderful family event with wild cow milking, clown and specialty acts, stage coach races, tribal dancing and wild horse races sharing the stage with afternoon rodeo events.

     Over 500 players bring history alive in Happy Canyon, a night pageant performed since 1914. Some roles in Happy Canyon have been handed down over generations to help tell the history of the West. Pendleton's parade, Westward Ho, features mules, oxen-drawn covered wagons, Mormon carts, buggies, surreys, riding groups, marching bands and Native Americans dressed in tribal regalia. Everyone joins together to show off the rich history of a proud Oregon community.

     Congratulations to City of Pendleton members, bargaining team leaders and Bruce Nobles, SEIU organizer. You make all working families proud.

Solidarity in Pendleton

     When we celebrate a contract victory, we might think that the power of SEIU Local 503, OPEU members is all that it takes to help management see the light and treat workers with dignity and respect. The recent contract win for City of Pendleton members reminds us that we can’t win every fight on our own. In Pendleton, we had some help from members of another union.

     Management at City of Pendleton needed to settle two contracts at the same time, ours and Pendleton fire fighters. The day before SEIU settled, the fire fighters kicked off their interest arbitration with a big rally at city hall. SEIU members stood with them that day. It was clear that the City did not want two fights. "They were very anxious to settle with us," said Lane Toensmeier, SEIU organizer. "The lesson here is that we should continue our efforts to work with the other unions in our local governments even if we don’t agree on everything."

     The hard work of Fire Fighters' Union members in Pendleton certainly helped SEIU City of Pendleton workers win a good contract. SEIU members reached a settlement, but Fire Fighters Union members are still at the bargaining table. Now let's be ready to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Pendleton fire fighters in their struggle for a fair contract settlement.

     Let’s help send the message that all City of Pendleton workers deserve a fair contract.

eNews Flash

Accountability: SEIU members worked hard to send a strong message in the May primary: "Working families deserve accountability." Members rang telephones in more than 500,000 homes all over Oregon to get the word out about our issues. Members personally delivered over 50,000 flyers and brochures to coworkers and voters’ homes to keep everyone informed. Every election has wins and losses. We can all be proud because we stand tall together. SEIU on 60 Minutes: CBS reporter Leslie Stahl recently spent some time with SEIU International President Andy Stern. On Sunday, May 14, 60 Minutes viewers learned what SEIU Local 503, OPEU members in Oregon already know: we stand up for workers everywhere. The good news is: working families do better when SEIU members step up for fairness. The next time you wear SEIU purple, don't be surprised if someone asks you, "Are you a member of the union on TV??"