A union composed of 620 city of Eugene employees is demanding changes to what they believe is an unfair contract with the city.
In an Oct. 25 city council meeting, the union, AFSCME Local 1724, voiced its concerns and emphasized two key issues with the contract: low cost-of-living adjustment — or COLA, which is an increase in salary to account for inflation — and predatory layoff language.
The city is offering Local 1724 members a 2% COLA starting Jan. 1, 2022. However, members argue this equates to a 1% COLA in the first year of the contract since the start and end of the city’s fiscal year is July 1.
Non-represented employees, which include supervisors, managers and professional-level non-supervisors in the city, will receive a 2.4% market adjustment pay similar to a COLA, Eugene Community Relations Director Laura Hammond said. However, these employees are also eligible to receive a 3.2% competency adjustment pay when they complete a survey and participate in an aspirational conversation with their supervisor.
“How is this even fair?” Local 1724 president Dal Ollek said at the city council meeting about the wage increase difference. “We live in the same community. We attend the same schools, shop at the same stores. Prices are going up. Our members are feeling the pinch.”
Wendy Beck, a member of Local 1724’s executive board and contract bargaining team, said the inequity in wage increases is dramatic.
“The city likes to talk about equity, and they at least give lip service to caring about everybody being treated well and equally and properly,” Beck said. “But then, they do something like this.”
Hammond said bargaining is still underway, but the city’s current financial proposal includes a 2% to 4% COLA in July 2022 and July 2023. AFSCME employees could receive up to an 11% total pay increase in 2022, she said.
Non-represented employees did not receive a cost of living increase after Jan. 1, 2020 because of the financial impacts of the pandemic, while union employees received a 2% COLA in 2020, Hammond said.
Union members also said they are distressed by the city’s proposal that would insert language allowing supervisors to reduce employee hours by 25% for up to six months without any of the job protections in the existing union contract.
Monica Bielski Boris, a representative of the wider Oregon AFSCME Council 75, said this could potentially target employees who are close to retirement or who managers would like to see leave. Employees’ hours could be cut and replaced with temps who are cheaper, she said.
Boris said the city did not propose this layoff language with the fire or police department, and no jurisdiction is proposing something similar.
“It really comes for the heart of what is at the union contract,” Boris said. “One of the things that makes a union job different than a non-union job is that you do have an element of due process. Once you make probation, you’re not completely an employee at-will who can be let go for no reason at all. There’s a process.”
Ollek said AFSCME members will feel a larger effect from reduced hours than non-represented employees. “For our lowest-paid members who are making $16 an hour, they’re barely making ends meet with their full wage,” he said. “You take 25% of their hours, and that’s a significant impact on those employees.”
Beck, who is also a library assistant, said her colleagues have expressed concerns about the potential layoff language’s effect on their financial security. She said the union membership won’t accept the proposed language because future bargaining choices are affected by previous contracts. “We don’t want these erosions of our rights to be festering in the contract for time immemorial,” she said.
Hammond said the proposed additional language is intended to create a way for the city to reduce employee hours on specific teams during emergency circumstances without initiating disruption to multiple teams. Impacted employees would retain full health care benefits.
The city continues to encourage AFSCME to provide feedback through the bargaining process about alternatives to workforce reductions, Hammond said.
The union members also said they want higher equity in benefits relative to other units and market-based wage adjustments.
“The city and AFSCME will go to mediation on Nov. 15, and the city is hopeful that the process will provide an opportunity to come to an agreement,” Hammond said.
Local 1724 held a bargaining solidarity rally on Monday, Nov. 8.
