Published: January 7, 2020

The bargaining team voted to sign a Tentative Agreement Friday!  The TA is final after the bargaining unit members vote on it. 

  • Term: 3 year contract, expiring June 30, 2022
  • Wages:  As of July 1st, 2019, all bargaining unit employees will receive a 4% retroactive salary increase , including all topped out employees. A 4% salary increase accounts for the largest single year increase in the history of Union and is higher than both the rise in the cost of living and is higher than the average merit pool increases in 2016, 2017 or 2018.   On July 1st, 2020 and July 1st, 2021 merit pool increases will be the same as the current contract language, which is a minimum merit increase of 1%. 
  • Healthcare: status quo
  • Layoff language: eliminated La Grande, added Bend
  • Discipline: Improved disciplinary protections
  • No Discrimination: Gender identity is now a protected classes under the contract.

Our union leadership has been on offense over the last year, enforcing the contract through grievance fights, and in this bargaining cycle put forward a number of union-building proposals and then gathered support from coworkers by organizing actions. 

Another change this year was a union-run market study put together by SEIU 503 senior researcher Emily Sokolski. On this contract we won economics that are worth twice as much money as the last 3 year contract. We prioritized a wage increase that reflected the cost of living and we won that for the first year based on the information gathered that showed every position was under market. We shared this information with management and the OPB Board of Directors and will continue organizing around a transparent, collaborative market study process. 

This year a majority of our 33 person  bargaining unit got involved, participating in surveys, meetings, 1:1 conversations,  the market study, the information picket, observing bargaining or taking the lead in conversations with their coworkers. 

This is a start, not an end, to building union power at OPB!