Homecare Bargaining Update: May 6 Session

At our third meeting with state management, we continued making progress in bargaining and made several proposals, including a proposal to increase our protections from our pay being late or short. We also appreciated the fact that the state listened to our demand for language justice and shared their proposals with us in both English and Spanish, which allowed all the members of our homecare bargaining team to participate in negotiations.   
 
However, the state did also make some troubling proposals. One of those proposals is to take away administrative pay – the 15 minutes of pay we receive each pay period to reimburse us for the time we spend doing timesheets and other administrative work.   
 
At our next meeting, our bargaining team will shift our focus to the economic issues in our contract like pay scale steps, cost-of-living increases, paid time-off and more. We are meeting on May 19 to develop the rest of our proposals. Then we’ll share those proposals with the state team at our next meeting on May 20.  
 
Also, tomorrow (May 8), more than 100 homecare workers, including our bargaining team, will be at the Capitol talking to lawmakers about why it’s important to fund homecare. Oregon lawmakers set the budget that funds our contract, so it’s critical that they hear from us, the people who do the work.  
 
If you’d like to an opportunity to take action, join us, along with other unions and community partners at the State Capitol on June 5th from 12:00pm – 2:00pm to rally for a state budget that reflects Oregon’s values, protects essential services and invests in Oregon workers. Register here! 
 
Our union’s power to win improvements comes from homecare workers staying involved and informed. Please follow us on Facebook, read Dignity, our biweekly e-newsletter, and check us out online for the latest information about bargaining and our union. For questions contact your union organizer or our Member Assistance Center at (844) 503-7348.