Contract Negotiations!!
Summer 2008
Wages, Benefits, Working Conditions, Health Insurance.
Help us, COPPEA, organize to negotiate our next contract! Help us to help us all.
Our greatest challenge is solidarity. All officers and member reps are volunteers and have limited time. Often, we only speak when you have an issue to resolve. We need you to get involved this year. We need to determine what we want, how to communicate among ourselves, and how to present a united front in contract negotiations. We will need to transition from our current emphasis on problem solving though several Labor Management Committees (LMC) to the more adversarial bargaining environment. We are resisting shutting down the LMCs, but that may be inevitable during contract negotiations.
Have you noticed that our contract has an expiration date? It expires in July 2010. Although that’s two years away, the City has already approached us to request a list of our contract issues. Before we do that, we want to prepare by
creating a thoughtful yearlong process. We, your colleagues, hope that you will give consideration to joining us. First of all, let us tell you a little bit about us: Our Association has represented Professional and Technical Employees working for the City of Portland since 1959. Since that time the City of Portland and COPPEA have negotiated collective bargaining agreements that set out the terms and conditions of employment for City employees covered by the COPPEA agreement. For example, we are currently challenging the City’s desire to reduce your overtime benefits. This issue will return in our next contract negotiations. Since 2001 we have added approximately 300 new members to COPPEA. We now boast about 750 members. We have the services of an attorney and a business agent that you can access. For our contract negotiations we will be using additional professional resources. We know there are issues that can only be fixed through future contract negotiations. For example, we think the Professional Development Fund (PDF) should work better.
How do we start?
• We need to canvass you, our members. • We also have to devote resources to organizing. We will need to have professional advice on contract law and health care insurance. • Most importantly, we need you to stay informed.
Stay tuned for more details.
We know that you need background to get involved. This fall and winter we hope to have a series of meetings and discussions to involve you. Your representative will be a key person to work with. If you have not yet signed up, please do so at our website: www.coppea.org. We look forward to making real gains and not fighting a defensive campaign as in recent contract negotiations.