Oregon has three full-time professional mediators whose job is to help public employee unions and public employers negotiate contracts. But a rising number of contentious bargaining disputes and strikes has put a strain on staffing.
The Oregon Employment Relations Board (ERB) is seeking funding for a fourth mediator. ERB received 67 requests for contract mediation in 2024. The number of requests isn’t going up drastically, but the intensity of the mediation process is.
Under Oregon’s Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act, public employers or unions can request mediation if they’ve bargained for 150 days without reaching agreement. If the two sides still don’t have an agreement two weeks after starting mediation, they can declare impasse and enter a 30-day cooling off period before going on strike. Declarations of impasse have increased more than 50% in the past seven years.
“Those are requiring a lot more services from the mediators, because that means that this dispute is really, really high conflict,” ERB Chair Adam Rhynard told the Joint Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on General Government in a Feb. 3 hearing. When a strike is imminent, ERB typically assigns two mediators to the case.
“It’s more effective because you have two eyes on what’s happening, the dynamics in the room,” Rhynard told lawmakers.
But ERB couldn’t put two mediators on each case last fall, because three public employee unions — Oregon State University graduate student workers, Greater Albany Public Schools teachers, and Benton County workers — were on strike at the same time.
Many public employee contracts run on similar fiscal year cycles, which means ERB often sees multiple negotiations heating up at the same time.
During the Portland Association of Teachers strike in November 2023, Yamhill County workers also went on strike. Another union in Multnomah County was also gearing up for a strike. All three unions required mediation services at the same time.
For cases filed in the first half of this fiscal year, ERB has held 124 contract mediation sessions totaling 1,570 hours. Mediation sessions often last for 12 hours or more, particularly when strikes are already under way.
Any public employee strike means public services are put on hold. ERB’s statutory goals include protecting the public by minimizing interruptions to public services.
“People know about the Portland Public School strike. Fewer people know about the Yamhill County strike that was happening at the same time. That’s just as important to the people in Yamhill County, that they have their services,” Rhynard told the legislative committee.
It’s also taking longer to schedule dates with mediators. In fiscal years 2017 through 2019, the average time between the request and the first available date of a mediator was around 20 days. That number has slowly climbed up. In the fiscal year ending June 2024, it took an average of 35 days.
At Portland State University, the American Association of University Professors filed a request for mediation on Nov. 18, 2024, and waited nearly two months for their first mediation session.
“That is (due to) underfunding the Employment Relations Board at the state level, and understaffing of the Employment Relations Board,” PSU-AAUP President Emily Ford said at a Jan. 15 press conference.
Contract mediation is the top priority for the ERB mediation program, which means that other responsibilities like mediating grievances or unfair labor practice complaints and providing training are put on the back burner.
“During this increase in high-conflict disputes, the training is the first thing to go,” Rhynard told the Labor Press. The training teaches both sides how to do interest-based bargaining, which means proposals are developed by both sides sharing their needs and concerns and brainstorming solutions. Rhynard said none of the groups that have completed the training have gone on to declare impasse or go on strike.
State agency payments to ERB and fees for training and mediation sessions account for roughly 44% of the board’s budget, while 56% comes from the state general fund. ERB’s ask, which was included in Gov. Tina Kotek’s proposed budget, includes funding for one additional mediator.
