Since last week’s update, there has been a lot of talk about the lack of bargaining during session and some incorrect information is being treated as fact, when it is not.
- Jessica Kneiling was recently quoted in the Willamette Week stating that the Union canceled bargaining on March 30. To help clear up any miscommunication, no bargaining was scheduled for March 30th of this year and we were as surprised as everyone else to read about it. After reviewing our bargaining activity, this quote appears to be based on our bargaining session that took place nearly 14 months ago on March 29-30, 2022. At that time, per the request of the Union, March 30 was used as a bargaining caucus day.
- Late last week, Employee Services sent out a newsletter that stated:
“Bargaining Update. The Parties agreed at the onset of bargaining to pause during both the short and long sessions. With sine die on the horizon, the bargaining teams will continue to work on the contract with bargaining set to start up again on June 28 and 29, 2023, with more dates to follow during the interim. We will continue to keep staff updated as this progresses.”
As reported last week, we have confirmed June 28-29 for bargaining and we continue to look for additional dates both before and after session ends.
- While the ground rules for bargaining state that the parties agree to schedule the date and time of sessions in a manner that minimizes disruption to the operations of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the ground rules do not say that we will not meet during session and was specifically intended to allow for bargaining.
While the ground rules for bargaining state that the parties agree to schedule the date and time of sessions in a manner that minimizes disruption to the operations of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, the ground rules do not say that we will not meet during session and was specifically intended to allow for bargaining.
At the very beginning of bargaining, December 2021, we reached agreement on the ground rules which went into effect December 7, 2021. Although most of the dialog about bargaining has been around bargaining during session, we are including a link to the entire ground rules document.