Contracting out jobs or work can eventually result in a host of problems which are unforeseen by officials who a searching for a way to save money. It out can result in higher costs, poorer service, and it can actually diminish government flexibility, control, and accountability. Decent jobs with benefits are replaced with low?wage jobs with no benefits. Often the providing companies are not local and can even be located overseas. The costs are greater than advertised and can include extra fees for contract monitoring and administration as well as charges for extra work. Contractors are motivated by profit and often cut corners while using public equipment and facilities. Public employees often perform extra tasks with the motivation being public service. In the contractor’s view, extra tasks cost money and cuts into their profits. The public managers lose flexibility and the ability to get things done when the tasks are not in the contract specifications. The impact is especially adverse when the outside contractor is from another country. Good jobs are replaced with low?wage jobs performed by poorly trained unskilled workers. Profits leave the community and flow overseas, never to return. As the in?house expertise is eliminated, the contractors can start raising their prices. The first bid may look attractive but contractors often use a low bid at first to eliminate the competition. Once that has been achieved, prices go up.

Government entities are required to operate in an open arena. Private companies are not subject to the same public scrutiny. This is an ideal environment for corruption. Complaints from citizens cannot be directly addressed and as a result, public accountability decreases. Contracting out is a risky business and managers and elected officials would be well advised to recognize that workers are a valuable resource. They are not simply a cost to be cut.

We have seen studies which have shown that the City of Portland is in much better financial condition than most cities and that it maintains a triple A bond rating and a healthy general fund balance. It also has been established that the City has a disproportionate number of employees in well compensated management positions. This causes excessive overhead. Now another survey of the local labor market shows that base wage rates of employees represented by the DCTU have fallen behind counterparts at other public jurisdictions in the Portland, Oregon area. This wage disparity reaches beyond benchmark classifications; affecting other linked DCTU represented employees. The impact has the greatest effect on veteran DCTU employees who have no opportunities for earning higher wages without additional steps.

The City has ignored the class comp study even though the mayor has repeatedly promised to address this issue. In this contract proposal the city has attempted to push aside the class compensation issue with a divide and conquer strategy. The lowest paid office staff receives nothing and others receive a token of the City’s esteem. Raises for a select few and nothing for everyone else. Perhaps underpaid office personnel should all get wastewater certification so as to be able to deal with the combined sewer overflow of this situation.

We need to bring all below market wages closer to the national average. A phased approach could be implemented and this would bring all below market wages closer to the national average by the City’s proposed date. Otherwise the City will continue to downgrade our position. Our previous 5 year contract provides a cost of living allowance which is between 2% and 5%. It has gone above 3% only once. We have had years of substandard COLAs that have continuously lagged behind the rest of the country. So we keep slipping while management gets double digit increases that result in a bloated costly bureaucracy. The City is trying to sell the public on a model that starves the bottom to feed the top. It is also trying to sell the DCTU on a model of secret negotiations, which result in a few crumbs for some and forget the rest. Make no mistake; eventually they will forget us all.

Our bargaining process is established by the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act (PECBA), ORS 243.650 - 243.782, which establishes a collective bargaining process for Oregon’s public employers and unions representing public employees. PECBA is administered by the Employment Relations Board (ERB), a state agency. The three members of the Board are appointed by the Governor.

PECBA provides for the following sequence:

1) Direct Bargaining – minimum 150 days

2) Mediation - minimum 15 days

3) Impasse

4) Final Offer and Costing – within 7 days of Impasse

5) 30-Day Cooling Off Period

6) Employer may implement Final Offer

AND Union may Strike – after 10 day notice

We began Interest Based Bargaining (IBB) with the City in January, which set the 150 day clock to expire in this month (June). When the City refused to continue with IBB and insisted we move to traditional bargaining we had to completely redo and resubmit our proposals. The extension to August is specific to the minimum required 150 days ONLY and was mutually agreed upon.

Please note that if Bargaining is moving along successfully the timeline can be (and is likely to be) extended again by mutual agreement. The PECBA minimums generally come into play when the process is failing…

Last night, the House of Representatives did the right thing by siding with middle-class families over the insurance companies, and finally passing comprehensive health care reform.As AFSCME Pres. Gerald W. McEntee said: "Last night's historic vote marks a major milestone in the struggle to break the power of the insurance industry and provide quality, affordable health care for millions of American families." No longer will insurance companies be able to undermine your health care coverage. No more denials due to pre-existing conditions or dropped coverage for people who get sick. If your children don?t have health insurance, you can keep them on your plan until they turn 26. No longer will people go bankrupt because of illness and no hidden ceiling on your coverage.

We are a better America today.

Check out the new discounted events for AFSCME members. Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Disney events. Even the Harlem Globetrotters.Click on the link to view scheduled events.