Bargaining

In order to secure a contract, we have to bargain with our employer, the City of Portland. This bargaining process is a time for members to prioritize our demands, build our power, and get what we want for our workplaces.

See all the articles that have been proposed here.
View our bargaining timeline here.

Check out recent bargaining updates below. View other bargaining related posts here.

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March 20 Mediation Update

One thing is clear – all your work to show up, share your stories, and put pressure on the City to settle this contract is working!

We made progress. Nothing is final, but progress.

The pressure we’ve been applying is one reason why! When we Fight – We Win.

Layoff and Seniority protections – CPPW proposed an updated Layoff article that protects members and proposed a functional system for seniority rights that prioritizes the unique needs of our members. It is crucial to have a system where workers cannot be targeted but that also addresses the need for an appropriate qualification process in our broadest classifications.

The City came to work. They presented three counterproposals packages that included most of the remaining articles.

There was positive movement from the City on:

• Holidays and Personal Days – The City agreed to 3 flexible holidays and hour-for-hour personal days (instead of the 24 hour standard). Many of our members celebrate holidays that are not reflected in the current list of approved holidays and prefer flexibility in how they can use these days.
• Sick Leave – updates for flexibility in required documentation and against judging the sick leave usage of members based on averages of other workers.
• Shift and Hours – including differentials for our members with schedules outside typical hours.
• Contractual rights for Limited Duration Employees (excluding layoff and discipline). LD employees make up about 10% of CPPW members.
• Leave – Protection of leave for tribal and citizenship matters; affirmation of leave use for gender affirming care.

Modest movement from the City:

• Telework – City expanded their language so that telework agreements cannot be unreasonably denied. The City stayed firm against hybrid as the standard.

No positive movement from the City:

• Bargaining Unit Work and Contracting Out – we continue to fight for clear protections around what should be our member’s work.
• Vacation – members lost nearly 2000 of vacation hours in 2024. This is our earned time and money that disappears. We continue to fight for fair compensation of our earned time through cash out options.
• Standby and On Call – the City continues to offer very narrow parameters. Members are currently required to perform uncompensated essential work on a regular basis. We will continue to push for broad and fair compensation for this crucial work.
• Economics – the City maintained their position on economic adjustments. We will continue to push for clear and consistent compensation for all CPPW members.

Bargaining Team and the City will be doing informal work sessions over the next weeks to dig into the member impact of some of these articles.

Next mediation sessions: April 14, 21, & 24

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March 5 Mediation Update

On March 5th, the CPPW Bargaining team sat down with the City for the first mediated bargaining session.

Wednesday, CPPW came to the table prepared and ready to deal. We presented a finalized version every article that we want to see in the contract.

Parties reached agreement on the Reclassification article. This is ongoing reclassification of employees (not related to our Class Compensation study, which has already been TA’d).

At the end of the day, the City returned with counter proposals on Professional Development and Performance Evaluation.

This is not the level of progress we want to see and not the level of participation we want from the City.

The session concluded with a productive conversation between CPPW and the City on details within specific proposals and how we can move them forward, specifically layoff protections and telework. It was useful to engage around direct concerns and hear the City’s views around their own limitations. Unfortunately this dialogue happened late into the evening and did not yield concrete results – yet.

We plan to continue proposing creative solutions to complex problems next session. This has been and will continue to be our approach.

We are demanding that the City do the same. Instead of starting and ending at “no”, tell us what the barriers are and discuss options for making progress through other methods.

We want to see movement from the City – because we are prepared to fight for the strong contract we deserve.

Next Bargaining Session – March 20th

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January 14th Bargaining Update

This week we were able to settle two critical articles –

• Memorandum of Understanding on the outcomes of the Class Compensation study from last summer that lays the foundation for our future wage step system in our 2nd contract.
• Union Security article that guarantees serious rights to our bargaining unit to organize ourselves and fight for members.

That brings us to 13 Tentative Agreements.

CPPW presented counters on –

• Types of Employees – guaranteed rights for temporary and limited duration employees
• Holidays – we’re calling for day-for-day personal leave instead of flat 24, additional deferred holiday annual rollover, and flexible holidays that allow members to celebrate and worship based on their personal beliefs.

The City, disappointingly, brought nothing new to the table for this session, only presenting a mid-day counter to a CPPW morning proposal. We are waiting on the City to respond to 23 articles! 23 out of 29! That’s 79% unfinished work.

 

The City says they want to settle this contract. They say they want labor peace. They are not doing the work to make that happen.

 

Our job as a union right now is is to turn up the pressure on the City to settle this contract, to do their share of the work, and to quit dragging their feet and bargain!

Next Steps: 

• We are scheduled for mediation on January 31st  and February 3rd. If any other City union has called for a strike, then our mediation will be bumped so that the state mediators can focus on averting the strikes.
• If the mediation is delayed, those dates will become bargaining sessions.

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December 17th Bargaining Update

On December 17th, the CPPW bargaining team met with the City of Portland to keep moving forward towards a strong contract.

Unfortunately, we have been bargaining for 9 months and are not seeing enough progress or engagement from the City. Considering this lack of significant forward movement towards a contract, the Bargaining Team has officially requested Mediation through the Employment Relations Board.

We are committed to continue bargaining with the City to settle this contract as we schedule and pursue mediation!

More details on mediation to come once our first session is scheduled.

Recent At the Table Topic:

Should the City have to bargain with us about Technology or AI in the workplace? We think yes!

The City says that they see the New Technologies and AI proposal as “permissive”, meaning that they do not believe they have to negotiate with us on that topic.

We think any development that affects our work conditions or that might lead to layoffs is a required part of the contract. Our team and our attorney believe that sections of these articles are mandatory and will keep bargaining over these issues!

The Quick Contract Progress Tally:

11 articles – tentative agreement!

1 article – waiting on a CPPW counter

22 articles – waiting on a counter from the City

CPPW bargaining team has done our work, we need the City to do their work too!

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December 4th & November 25th Bargaining Recap

Class Comp Study

City countered the Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to share the outcomes of the class compensation study and to a joint union/management committee  to develop the proposal for classification structure and compensation, which will ultimately be bargained as a part of contract two.

After the 2018 class comp debacle and the failure to provide adequate oversight to those consultants, we intend to be very involved in the creation of the new classification and compensation system and to use this to build our wage step system in contract two.

Strikes and Lockouts

CPPW presented a counter on ensuring that union members will not be asked to the do the work of another union member who may be on strike.

Union Security

City agreed to the CPPW proposal for increased hours for contract enforcement and union work hours – up to 1800 hours per year! 🙌

Hours of Work – Work Location

CPPW presented a counter for hybrid-halftime to be a standard for work hours and for employees to retain the right to request other options that may be best for them and their work.

Compensation & Wages

CPPW made that clear at the bargaining table that we are committed to build a guaranteed wage step system for members as an outcome of the class and compensation study.

Building the new system take time and it’s important for us to finalize this contract! So, while we are building the wage step system for the successor contract, your bargaining team renewed our proposal for guaranteed wage increases in the next two years – 4% & 5%, respectively.

We also proposed an increase to the bottom of the current Admin Specialist I wage scale so even a starting wage is a living wage. It is a priority to bring all members up to a fair, living wage! We’ve used the Portland Housing Bureau’s own standard for a single person living in Portland, which can be found here.

Read the entire text of these provisions here.

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November 15th Bargaining Recap

On November 12th, the CPPW Bargaining team sat down with the City to continue negotiating for a strong union contract.

CPPW presented counter proposals on matters related to general provisions, including a a guarantee that the City will provide employees with necessary uniforms and protective gear. CPPW also presented a counter proposal on Union Security, ensuring we have protected time to do crucial union work.

The City presented two counter proposals on Employment Types and Reclassification. We also reached a Tentative Agreement on protection for members in the event of a data breech.

Wages: Following CPPW’s wage proposal on October 30th, the City commmitted to respond to our economic package and wage structure at the November 25th bargaining session.

Read the entire text of these provisions here. 

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October 30th Bargaining Recap

CPPW met with the City on 10/30 for a packed, all-day bargaining session. Thank you to everyone who showed up for crafts, coffee, and solidarity!

CPPW’s proposals included:

• Wages – guaranteed wage increases and a commitment to negotiate for a wage step system
• Sick Leave – robust worker protections and additional ways to use sick leave
• Other Leaves – such as gender affirming care and weather & safety
• Vacation – including an annual cash-out policy and retirement cash-out options

The City’s proposals included:

• Health & Life Insurance
• Joint Labor & Management Committee
• Vacation

Both CPPW and the City brought counter proposals to the session and we came out with 4 tentative agreements (!) on matters of:

• Health & Life Insurance
• Probation terms
• Employee recognition
• Joint Labor & Management Committee

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October 14th Bargaining Recap

We met with the City on October 14. We exchanged the following proposals.

• Holiday: CPPW Counter Proposal focused on allowing up to 5 flexible holidays. This would allow members to use some of your holiday hours for days that are culturally appropriate for you. Also prioritized securing fair compensation for members who are required to work on holidays.
• Performance Incentive Leave: CPPW Counter Proposal creates a system for receiving additional hours of leave based on your job performance. This is not management leave, but is up to 80 hours of additional leave based on a clear and equitable system.
• Recognition: City Counter Proposal. They agreed that when represented classifications change but are substantially the same job duties, those positions would remain in CPPW membership.
• Union security: City Counter Proposal. City agreed to pay the union for dues that they fail to deduct. City decreased the amount of paid time for union work from 1800 hours to 800 hours. These are the hours that we can use to do the work of representing you while not losing pay.

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September 30th Bargaining Update

Contract Bargaining is moving forward with CPPW doing the majority of the heavy lifting to propose articles and craft language. The City has taken a lackadaisical attitude, offering few counters and seeming to hope they can just drag their feet through the rest of 2024. That won’t work for us!

Your Bargaining Team offered 7 counter-proposed articles: 

1. Professional Development – We are proposing a $165,000 fund, up from the City’s $100,000 offer.

2. Retirement – Continuity of retirement with City continuing to cover the 6% contribution.

3. Health & Welfare/insurance – Securing CPPW a voice at the Labor Management Health Care Committee to drive the future of health coverage at the City.

4. Recognition – Establishing who we represent and making a clear distinction about supervisors versus staff.

5. General Provisions – An overarching article that includes Uniform Protective Clothing allowance, requirements for Contract Printing, outline of Reasonable Employment Accommodations, Workload management, requirement to negotiate any Change in Working Conditions, and Rules, Department Policies and Employment Policies and Practices

7. Joint Labor Management Committee – Citywide body to address issues important to the membership outside of contract negotiations
8. Union Security – Guarantees rights for the union in the workplace, including right to communicate with members, leave time for union work, paid time to represent members, and protections for union activity.

The City offered 1 counter-proposal:

• Vacations – standard vacation practices, and, importantly, they removed CPPW proposal for up to 80 hours of vacation cash out once per year.This seems like an unnecessary position to take for the City since the vacation cash out option is a cost neutral program that the City could easily implement based on the framework already set up for other unions.

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The People:

Bargaining is led by the Bargaining Team, a small body of members that is elected by the general membership to represent our best interests in the negotiations.

Email [email protected] to connect.

Your Bargaining Team:

• Ashly Hoffman, PBOT, Analyst II (Bargaining Co-chair)
• Anamaría Perez, BPS, Analyst II (Bargaining Co-chair)
• Kari Koch, BDS, Coordinator II (CPPW President)
• Annette Wood, Water, Administrative Specialist II (CPPW Organizer)
• Jay Richmond, BPS, Coordinator II (CPPW At Large Board Member)
• Anna DiBenedetto, OMF-CSD, Administrative Specialist III
• Kimberléa Ruffu, Parks, Coordinator II
• Jamey Duhamel, OMF-CAO, Coordinator III
• Rachel Jamison, Water, Analyst III

The Bargaining Team is advised by the Bargaining Committee, a broad group of members that research issues, gather information, and connect with members about the union’s priorities. If you have specific interests, needs, or ideas about the contract, this is the place to plug in. Email [email protected] to connect.

The Bargaining Team will coordinate with the Contract Action Team during negotiations. The Contract Action Team is a network of workplace leaders, communicators, messengers, and members that take action in support of the bargaining team and to build power to get a strong contract. Contact [email protected] to learn more and plug in.

The Bargaining Team reports to the Executive Committee and to the General Membership at the monthly membership meetings.

How you can help get a strong contract:

1. Sign your union card. 

The City will not willingly give us a strong contract that we deserve. We have to demonstrate that we are united front that will take action together to achieve our goals of higher wages, better working conditions, and stronger protections.  Signing your card is the first action – and one of the biggest actions – you can take to show you want a strong contract.

2. Attend Bargaining

Check out the CPPW calendar for dates and times to attend in person. This is an important show of strength and support!

You may also request a link to view negotiations if you have an accommodation need.

3. Provide testimony or support contract development

Do you have special insight into a particular area (over time, paid leave, remote work, etc). We will be looking for people to testify about why our contract matters and people to help write up contract provisions. Email [email protected] to connect.

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