Your bargaining team has been hard at work on getting proposals ready to pass to management. We couldn’t have done this without your voice at the center of our discussions, through all of the key issues you helped identify in your bargaining surveys. We’ve got a long way to go to win on these key issues, but we’re one step closer to making that happen – we shared these proposals with management yesterday, and as long as we stay united, we’ll make progress on key issues we all care about. Check out the table below for a side-by-side comparison on some of our top priority issues and read the full list of union and management proposals on our website.

PRIORITY BARGAINING ISSUES

	UNION PROPOSAL	MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL
Across-the-board Raises	– 7/1/21: 3% or $100/mo, whichever is greater – 7/1/22: 3% or $100/mo, whichever is greater	– 10/1/21: 2%* – 7/1/22: 1.85%*
Steps	Steps both years of contract**	Steps both years of contract**
Insurance	Reduce employee premium share for lower cost plans from 1% to 0%	Status quo
COVID Hazard Pay	$5/hr for all non-telecommuting work hours between 3/8/20 and 6/30/21	Nothing
Essential Worker Differential	Employees required to work in person when offices and/or services are otherwise closed will get a $5/hr differential for all non-telecommuting hours worked	Nothing
Telework/ Telecommuting	Expand access to telework	Nothing
Inclement Weather/Hazardous Conditions/Wildfire Protections	Leave bank increased to 80 hrs/biennium; Office closures tied to air quality index; Limits on outdoor work in unhealthy air conditions; safety equipment required; continue protections for employees who lose their home to wildfire, and more!	Nothing

*Contingent on $190M salary pot in final legislative budget
**Employees who are not “topped out”

GOVERNOR’S FORUM
Join SEIU 503 members from across the state for a listening session with Governor Kate Brown. This is our chance to raise critical issues facing our members after a year of the pandemic, devastating wildfires, and the ongoing need for essential services. Members are encouraged to submit their questions in advance via a link that will be available once you register. Registration deadline: 4/11/2021. Accessibility services are available for this event for attendees who register by the deadline. Register now.

PAYROLL PROCESS UPDATES
We also want to share an update on where we’re at with the payroll process situation. Because union members spoke out and shared concerns with management about the changes they were proposing, and because we have a union contract that protects our members from management making these changes without bargaining with us, management has backed off their proposal! They did not pass a proposal to change the contract language that would need to change in order to move forward with their plans to move some salaried employees to hourly (and further down the road move to bi-weekly or semi-monthly pay periods). Instead management is proposing a Labor/Management committee to explore the impacts of what they want to do, but any ideas explored would likely still have to be bargained. So, what does that mean? No changes are coming to the way your pay is calculated or the frequency of your paychecks! We are still holding a webinar on this issue next week to answer any questions you may have. Join us Tuesday, April 6th at 5:30pm, and be sure to register for the webinar in advance.

COVID VACCINE UPDATE
Many frontline workers will be eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine on April 5. (See Group 7 in this PDF) Check out our COVID resource webpage for more info on where to get your vaccine.