All the Latest

UPDATE FOR MARCH 16th, 2023

Hearings have been scheduled to resolve the City’s objection to our petition for a vote, which claimed that none of the 762 employees covered by our petition were eligible for unionization. The hearings have been scheduled for March 29-31 & April 6-7 & 10.

We were also extremely surprised and pleased to receive significant financial backing in recent days to help us get to the finish line and exercise our democratic right to a vote! More to follow on that…

Once we have a favorable ruling, the ERB will schedule our unionization vote. When we vote, we just need a simple majority of votes cast to be “Yes” votes. So, for example, if only 100 people cast a ballot out of the 762 non-reps we’ve petitioned for, we just need 51 or more “Yes” votes to unionize the entire 762!

Our legal expenses are piling up! Please consider donating to our legal fund via Zelle at portlandprofessionalworkers@gmail.com or via GoFundMe at https://gofund.me/df90be83

We will keep you posted and look forward to prevailing in court and to voting in the near future!

Let’s Talk About Management Leave

Let’s Talk About Management Leave

Management Leave is a City policy (HRAR 8.03) that grants up to 80 hours additional paid leave per calendar year to non-reps “who are not eligible for overtime compensation” with the intent to “recognize exceptional additional individual efforts, performance and achievements, including but not limited to beyond the standard workweek”.

We have heard from a number of you who are concerned that, should we unionize, you will lose your management leave benefit. We hear you. And we agree that management leave is wonderful to receive!

But did you know that some non-reps – including high-performers and those working plenty of extra hours – have never received management leave? Many have never even heard of it! Only a lucky few routinely get the maximum 80 hours (though that is becoming rarer by the year). We don’t think that’s fair, and we are confident we can do better.

By joining together as an 800-strong collective bargaining unit, we provide ourselves with choices.

For example, in lieu of management leave, we might choose to negotiate for overtime pay. We may also choose to negotiate for higher paid time off accruals. Or, we could choose to negotiate for a “new and improved” management leave benefit – perhaps with some checks and balances and clear award criteria – that gives all employees an equal opportunity to benefit from the program.

Many City professionals, including Accountants, Engineers, and Business Systems Analysts, have already negotiated for overtime pay at time and a half. They also chose to bank up to 80 hours of that overtime pay as “comp” time. All of your represented colleagues at the City also receive a guaranteed annual raise (“step increase”) that gets them to the top of their pay scale within a reasonable time frame, as well as a guaranteed cost of living adjustment. As a non-rep, there are no guarantees. As recent history has shown, your management leave, merit increase, cost of living adjustment, and other benefits can be cut, capped, or eliminated at any time.

Most importantly, it’s not an “either/or” decision between unionizing or management leave: Voting “Yes” on election day puts us squarely in the driver seat, and puts these choices in our lap.

Your CPPW organizing committee is committed to democracy in the workplace, and we would love to hear from you on this topic, or on anything else that is important to you!

Please Contact Us today and let us know what you think!

Petition Filed? Check!

We are pleased to announce that our petition was filed with State of Oregon’s Employment Relations Board on Wednesday, February 1st, 2023 and can be seen here.

More to follow on that, and check out some recent articles in the news media about our organizing campaign!

And from the Portland Mercury:

https://www.portlandmercury.com/labor/2023/01/31/46328355/city-of-portland-office-workers-move-to-form-an-independent-union