Hundreds of Portland parks and transportation workers are planning to walk off their jobs next week with city leaders and a public employee union at an impasse in contract negotiations.
Laborers’ Local 483 notified the city Monday that its workers will go on strike starting Feb. 2, James O’Laughlen, a field representative and organizer for the union, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.
The impasse stems largely over cost-of-living increases as rising inflation continues to take a bite out of workers’ pay, O’Laughlen said.
“We just need a contract that allows our members to capture the wages they need to live in the community they serve,” he said.
With about 615 members, Local 483 represents just under 10% of the city’s workforce. They include people who work on sewers, clean and maintain city parks and repair roads and sidewalks, along with other jobs sprinkled across several bureaus. Parks employees who staff swim lessons and community centers are not among the union members headed toward a strike.
The union’s contract expired last summer and bargaining has been underway since March, O’Laughlen said.
In a statement Tuesday, city officials said they’ve proposed a new 4-year, $39 million contract that would include a 12% wage increase for all union members by July. Half of that wage increase — or 6% — would come from a 5% retroactive cost-of-living increase, the maximum increase currently allowed, and 1% retroactive pay raise.
Local 483, however, says it wants the city to remove the existing 5% cost-of-living cap from its next contract and instead tie cost-of-living adjustments directly to inflation. The union has also proposed a 3.5% across-the-board raise for its members, whose most recent cost-of-living raise was 1.6%.
Annual inflation surpassed 7% in 2021 and averaged about 6.5% last year.
-- Shane Dixon Kavanaugh; 503-294-7632
Email at skavanaugh@oregonian.com
Follow on Twitter @shanedkavanaugh
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