Seconds after the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners voted to ratify a collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME Local 88 at its Dec. 4 meeting, County Chair Deborah Kafoury had an announcement to make: The commitment to phase in a $15 minimum wage rate — agreed to in the contract — will also apply to about 400 temporary and on-call workers at the County, even though they’re not members of the bargaining unit. That includes about 300 temporary elections workers as well as about 45 on-call pages at the Multnomah County library.
Most of Local 88’s 2,900 members at Multnomah County make more than $15 an hour, but about 160 will get raises under the new contract floor — to $13 immediately, $14 as of July 2015, and $15 as of July 2016.
