It’s a wonderful thing to have a strong contract, but when it gets ignored by management time and again, workers must organize, file a formal grievance or both. You might have seen this in our biweekly union newsletter but recently dispatchers at ODOT in Bend had to come together to enforce their right to rest periods after years of being directed to work through them. Workers received an email in February in which management admitted that they had not been following the contract regarding breaks. The agency stated they had been in violation of the contract and said that they would now be following the language around breaks. While it was a step forward to admit the mistake, workers wanted some sort of resolution to this contract language having been violated for so long in the past.

The agency promised to investigate it but did not commit to much. They were unsure about what a remedy would look like. Rather than wait around even longer a grievance was filed on behalf of the group. Our union organizers and worker leaders consulted with BOLI (Bureau of Labor and Industries) and considered its look back period for lost wages. The agency agreed to calculate 2 years of missed breaks at the rate of time and a half (which is what the contract specifies for missed breaks due to management ordering workers to skip them). We also pushed for this to be paid at the rate of the top step for all workers. We held strong and have settled the grievance with a total payout of over $76,000 divided between 7 workers!

​​If you feel your contract rights are being violated at work reach out to your local steward or the MAC today.