Constitution & Bylaws – City of Portland Professional Workers Union

All About Dues

Update (3/15/2024) – Great News! The City has finished processing our demand for interim dues and dues will begin being deducted from member’s paychecks on 3/21/2024.

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A Message from Your Union Treasurer

Dues graphic.

Hello Union Siblings!

Dues are a crucial part of having a strong union – they allow us to pay for needed expenses, maintain an infrastructure, get the trainings we need to fight at the contract table, and have the resources to exercise our power. Most importantly, dues allow us all to contribute to building this union together.

Dues also generate a lot of questions! Let’s take a minute and dig into dues together.

What are CPPW dues right now?

In early December, with a vote of 91% in favor, the CPPW membership voted to institute flat interim dues of 0.5% of gross monthly salary as a temporary measure to raise money to fight for our first contract.

Why aren’t dues being taken out of my paycheck?

In late December, CPPW alerted the City that they should begin a dues paycheck deduction from all signed members in good standing as of 1/4/2024. Unfortunately, key City administrators say they need additional information from us in order to start the process. At the same time, those City administrators have not shown up to the scheduled meetings where we are supposed to be answering their questions. It is our legal right to fund our organization with interim dues from paycheck deductions. We will continue to press on this matter and will escalate as necessary to get this process going.

If the City is not taking any dues now, will there be any retroactive dues?

No. The CPPW membership will not be penalized for the City’s failure to deduct dues in a timely fashion.

Why do we need interim dues?

Traditional dues are implemented as part of a final contract with an employer. In the meantime, interim dues are essential to CPPW’s success in bargaining. Interim dues will pay for legal fees, administrative costs, printing, communications, technology, training fees, and more. A dues paying membership also demonstrates to the City that CPPW’s people support the union effort and are ready to back up that support with action!

What will dues be once we have a contract?

CPPW has designed a Progressive Dues structure which makes dues both affordable and equitable. This dues structure was codified in the Constitution and Bylaws, specifically Bylaw 2.

What are progressive dues?

Progressive Dues are a more fair and equitable dues structure where every person’s base, pre-tax wages are divided into brackets which correspond to a specific dues percentage. If, for example, a member made $50,000 or less annually their dues would be 0%, the next bracket ($50,000-$75,000) pays 1.45% on that $25,000 and so on.

To put progressive dues in context:

Average CPPW Wage is $102,500 – dues at this wage would amount to .93% (less than 1% of your base wages)

Highest CPPW wage is $163,321 – dues at this wage would amount to 1.75%

How does this compare to other Unions?

AFSCME 189’s dues are a flat rate of 1.77% for all members.
ProTec 17’s dues are a flat rate of .85% for all members.

How can I find out what my dues will be within the Progressive Dues structure?

CPPW has created a table to illustrate the dues percentage which corresponds to each income bracket. There’s a lot of great information in the table, this is what you’ll be looking at:

Column 1: Annual Salary
Column 2: Hourly Rate
Column 3: Corresponding Dues Percentage
Column 4: Amount of Dues Per Pay Period
Column 5: Total Amount of Dues Per Year

CLICK HERE to view the Progressive Dues wage table where you can look up your dues amount.

If you have questions please do not hesitate to reach out to treasurer Chris Gustafson at: [email protected]

Election 2023: Schedule and Rules

This is the union’s first election and the Election Committee is planning as we go, consulting with the Constitution and Bylaws.

Election Committee:
Steven Conlow, Coordinator I, OMF-BTS
Katie Robb, Analyst II, Water
Anna Shook, Analyst II, Housing
Connor Anderson, Technology Business Representative, OMF-BTS
Kimberly Campbell-Groen, Analyst III, BES

The list of Candidates.

Schedule

December 1, 2023 5:00 p.m. All nominations whether verbal or via email due.
December 15, 2023 5:00 p.m. Candidate bios due to the Election Committee.
January 8, 2024 5:00 p.m. Deadline to sign membership cards to be eligible to vote in the election.
January 9, 2024 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Candidate forum (zoom or teams)
January 9, 2024 1:00 p.m. Electronic ballots emailed to members in good standing.
January 18, 2024 5:00 p.m. Electronic voting ends.
January 18, 2024 5:30 p.m. Election results announced at Monthly Membership Meeting.

Election Rules

Candidates are free to campaign as they see fit using both electronic and in-person methods. All candidates and members are bound in their electoral conduct by the Constitution and Bylaws of CPPW, especially by Article II: Vision and Values; Purpose and Objectives and by Bylaw 5: Code of Conduct for All Meetings.
Candidates who are serving officers of the union must use either their personal or work email/Team or personal mobile devices if they want to communicate via email, Teams or SMS with members.
When communicating with members either electronically or in person, serving officers of the union may not mix official union business with campaigning.
The CPPW official list of personal and work email addresses, work and personal cell phone numbers of CPPW represented employees will not be provided to candidates. Candidates who are serving officers with access to those lists are prohibited from accessing or using them for campaign-related communications.
Candidates are free to post flyers and posters anywhere in City buildings where it is already permitted to post union-related documents. This includes personal cubicles and break room labor boards.

If a member wishes to report a violation of one of the above rules OR identifies candidate behavior that they find unethical or in violation of the Constitution and Bylaws, they should contact a member of the Election Committee. The Committee will rule on the matter and if it results in a new rule, will post it above with a notation.

After the election, The Election Committee will prepare a report for the new board that will include lessons learned and proposed permanent standing election rules.

CPPW Constitution Enacted by the Members!

At the November 30th general membership meeting, the vote to enact the proposed Constitution & Bylaws was passed by a vote of 102-2 (98% in favor). Voting took place over three days and the voting window closed during the meeting so that CPPW could announce the results to the members in attendance in real-time.

You can view the Constitution under the About Section of this website or view a printable copy [ HERE ].

In addition nominations were taken from the floor for officers and board members. The election for these positions will be announced soon, so be on the lookout. A candidates forum will also take place so that members can hear from those seeking election to CPPW offices.

Constitution & Bylaws: Membership Review & Vote

CPPW members:

The Constitution & Bylaws Committee has completed work on drafting our formation documents for the CPPW. This step is the precursor to elections for our officers and board members.

The Organizing Committee has received the draft Constitution & Bylaws from the Committee and approved it for review and voting by the members.

Voting will take place electronically on November 28, 29, & 30th. You will only be permitted to vote once and a link to vote will be sent to members in good standing on November 27th after 5 PM.

To ensure you’re a member in good standing, sign a membership card electronically [ HERE ].

• Click here to review the CPPW Constitution & Bylaws in PDF format.

Comments and suggestions can be provided on the Google Docs document [ HERE ]. We will close editing on Friday, November 17.

Elections will be announced once the Constitution is adopted and the Elections Committee is formed.

Join the Constitution & Bylaws Committee

Members:

We need to draft a constitution & bylaws before we can conduct our elections this fall. We want a document that has many voices of input and is patterned after known, successful constitutions of other labor organizations. We have scheduled meetings each WED at noon.

Most of the work of this committee will be completed offline and by use of Google docs to comment and edit our working draft(s). So the good news is that you will not always need to attend the weekly meeting.

If you can offer your help, please email the treasurer with your information so we can include you as part of the committee.

UPDATE: The draft constitution is complete and has been submitted to the Organizing Committee for review and then a vote by the members.