SEIU files for 1,400 judicial workers


By DON McINTOSH, Associate Editor

The biggest union drive in two years kicked off last month when Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 503 requested a union election for 1,400 employees at the Oregon Judicial Department (OJD). The unit would consist of all eligible employees of the state’s court system, including law clerks, office support staff and temporary employees.

Governor Ted Kulongoski is ensuring that management at executive branch state agencies stays neutral during union campaigns, but OJD, as a separate branch of government, isn’t under his authority; it’s headed by the elected chief justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, Wallace Carson, and run by his appointee, trial court administrator Kingsley Clark.

Before the campaign began, SEIU Local 503 Executive Director Leslie Frane and Oregon AFL-CIO President Tim Nesbitt met with Carson and asked for management neutrality. Carson was reportedly gracious, but non-committal.

Since then, union leaders say, OJD management has been waging a full-fledged anti-union campaign and – ironically enough – BREAKING THE LAW to do so.

The union has filed six separate charges with the state’s Employment Relations Board (ERB) alleging unfair labor practices by OJD management, including surveillance, interrogation and discrimination against union activity.

According to the complaints, managers told workers not to talk about the union while at work, even on break and even though they may talk about personal matters. Workers have been also told they can’t use work e-mail to discuss the union, though they can use it for personal reasons, and despite the fact the management has been using work e-mail to send out information about the union.

Pro-union worker Susan Hildebrand, a judicial assistant in Multnomah County, said the management campaign may be driving some workers closer to the union.

“We’re being fed information that is slanted,” Hildebrand said. “It’s shown the administration to be defensive.”

Steven Ward, Local 503 statewide organizing director, said OJD is a challenge to organize because it’s spread out among courthouses in 36 counties. As many as eight staff organizers have been assigned to help the campaign, and committees of pro-union workers have formed at most locations.

Union organizers have made attempts in the past to organize the department — losing by 17 votes in 1995.

At one point, OJD management argued that the department should not be subject to the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act, but they lost that argument in court.

Ward said the union’s job has been made harder in the past by management’s custom of giving the same pay and benefits to OJD employees that SEIU had negotiated for other state workers. In effect, OJD workers were getting a free ride, so why would they need to join the union?

But budget cuts have led to that parity being eroded in recent years: Union-represented state workers suffered a pay-freeze last year, but non-union workers at OJD were furloughed one day a week, which amounted to a substantial pay cut.

“At this point,” Ward said, “judicial workers have no voice in the process of decision-making, not in any way, shape, or form.”

In addition to a voice in major decision, Ward said, OJD workers want civil service protections, a fairer grievance procedure, fairer enforcement of policies and more transparent procedures for hiring and promotion.

Sandra Elliott, the state official in charge of running public sector union elections, said the OJD election is likely to take place in early May.

Union organizers say they expect it to be a close election.

OJD is the largest unit of state employees that remains unorganized by a union. Last year, SEIU won union recognition for 850 workers in the State Fish and Wildlife Department and 150 workers in Housing and Community Services. If OJD goes union, there would be just four sizable state agencies that remain non-union: Secretary of State, Oregon Lottery, Economic Development and Department of Energy.


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