Non-supervisory employees at the Portland Development Commission
took a step closer to forming a union Feb. 23 when representatives
from Oregon Council 75 of the American Federation of State, County
and Municipal Employees filed for an election with the Oregon Employment
Relations Board.
For the past two months organizers have quietly been meeting with
PDC employees. The agency is the quasi-public development arm for
the City of Portland. Its executive director is Bruce Warner, a former
Oregon Department of Transportation bureaucrat who was appointed to
the post a year-and-a-half ago by Mayor Tom Potter.
“A group of employees from PDC came to us in December, and
it’s just snow-balled from there,” said Organizing Director
Sue Lee-Allen.
Lee-Allen told the Northwest Labor Press that a majority of the
132 non-supervisory employees have signed union authorization cards.
“This is a highly-educated, highly-skilled level of folks
who like everyone else want to be treated with fairness and respect
at work,” Lee-Allen said.
All PDC employees are considered “at will” employees
and can be fired without cause.
Lee-Allen said it is one of the most fearful groups of employees
she’s dealt with in more than a decade of organizing. “The
level of fear here is pretty pervasive,” she said. “They’ve
worked at PDC for a long time, and they’ve just had enough
with the way they’ve been treated by some managers.”
An election won’t take place for another eight to 12 weeks,
which is worrisome, Lee Allen said, because union organizers know
that leaves a lot of time for management to try to dissuade workers
from joining.
State law says public employers must remain neutral when workers
attempt to organize, and Warner has told reporters the agency will
do just that.
However, Warner reportedly told staffers that he personally opposes
the union. “We’d prefer to deal with employees on a
one-on-one basis,” he said.
And, not three days after word got out about the union organizing
campaign, the nonunion Oregonian newspaper — a staunch supporter
of the PDC — weighed-in with a blistering editorial against
unionization.
The editorial and Warner’s comments prompted Portland City
Commissioner Randy Leonard to write a letter to the PDC director
asking that he post a notice to all employees acknowledging their
right to organize and pledging that the administration will remain
neutral during the campaign.
Leonard and colleague Erik Sten also drafted a resolution supporting
PDC staffers’ efforts to organize. The Portland City Council
passed that resolution unanimously on Feb. 21.
“I am heartened that the Portland City Council has spoken
unanimously in support of PDC employees’ right to organize,”
said Leonard, a former president of Fire Fighters Local 43. “I
hope that the PDC management will choose to embrace the organizing
efforts of their workers rather than fear them.”
Oregon AFSCME Executive Director Ken Allen penned a response to
the Oregonian editorial, but was told it wouldn’t be printed.
“In my 20-plus years here, I’ve never seen the Oregonian
editorialize against workers who are trying to join a union,”
Allen said at the Feb. 23 Executive Board meeting of the Oregon
AFL-CIO. “I think this type of editorial against workers sends
a new message in our community. The Oregonian needs to stay out
of our business.”
Allen said he plans to put together a coalition of labor leaders
to meet with the newspaper’s editorial board to discuss their
position.
At the monthly PDC commissioners’ meeting on Feb. 28, newly-appointed
Commissioner John Mohlis asked that the administration and management
remain neutral until an election is held. Mohlis, executive secretary-treasurer
of the Columbia-Pacific Building and Construction Trades Council,
said PDC staffers have contacted him and other commissioners asking
for a commitment to neutrality.
A flier produced by a core group of union supporters lists several
reasons why PDC staffers should vote for the union. The list included:
no cost-of-living increase in over eight years; no legitimate grievance
procedure; vindictive and retaliatory managers and supervisors;
unjust discipline; lack of promotional consideration; humiliating,
disrespectful and hostile supervision; wages that lag behind comparable
city and open market positions; personnel policies that are ignored;
excessive overtime without benefit of an agency-wide time policy
for exempt non-supervisory employees; minority employees feeling
disrespected and unvalued; and more.
PDC’s annual budget of more than $200 million is funded
by tax dollars. For years it operated under the radar, with little
public scrutiny. Its former executive director and commission chair
were under fire for allowing no-bid contracts to friends, inside
deals with staffers and contractors, and lavish spending on meals
and alcohol. Its free-spending drew the attention of the Portland
City Club, which in 2005 released a scathing report questioning
PDC’s lack of public accountability.
After Potter was elected mayor, he vowed to make the agency “more
transparent.” He brought in Warner and appointed a new commission.
