On June 20, members of a unit of 27 bakers and dishwashers at Grand Central Baking’s Northwest Portland wholesale bakery voted 13-4 to ratify their second collective agreement with Bakers Local 114. Workers there unionized in 2020 and ratified a first contract in 2021.
Cost of living increases in the new agreement total 11.25-12.75% over three years, depending on job title. A new hazard policy assures that no worker will be punished if they elect not to go to work during state- and county-declared weather emergencies. This became an issue in January, after ice storms made it hard for evening shift workers to get to work.
The contract also improved an attendance policy many staff considered unnecessarily harsh.
“Minor attendance issues were getting good workers fired automatically,” said Tyler Clapsaddle, Shop Steward and Bargaining Committee Member. “I heard this from workers who’d been there one year, fifteen years, and even management. Nobody liked the policy.” The new agreement overhauls the points system, halving the “points” allotted for minor attendance infractions, and reducing the lookback period for accumulated infractions from nine months to six.
Bakers, Confectioners, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) Local 114 represents workers in the Portland wholesale bakery. Retail workers at the 12 neighborhood cafes in Portland and Seattle, and truck drivers and wholesale bakers in Seattle, remain non-union.
