Unions at the City of Portland are sounding the alarm at possible layoffs of frontline workers that could unfairly spare city managers.
Preliminary budget recommendations released by City Administrator Mike Jordan in February include the elimination of 274 positions through attrition and layoffs. Around half of the positions on the chopping block are currently vacant, but about 130 of the cut positions would result in layoffs.
In public listening sessions and city council work sessions held in March and April, labor leaders, rank-and-file city workers, and members of the community urged Portland City Council to avoid cutting frontline workers.
Portland Mayor Keith Wilson will release his proposed budget May 5. Portland City Council will then consider amendments, with a final budget approved before the new fiscal year starts on July 1.
Laborers Local 483 represents 110 of the positions Jordan recommended cutting, including more than 50 that are already vacant. Proposed cuts to positions would result in the layoff of 18 workers in city recreation programs and 36 in transportation and parks maintenance.
Another 44 positions proposed to be cut are represented by City of Portland Professional Workers (CPPW), a new union representing about 750 city workers that’s still negotiating a first contract. Some of those positions are currently vacant, but 28 workers would be laid off.
Roughly 80% of city workers are represented by a union, while 20% are non-represented — primarily management, union leaders said. CPPW President Kari Koch said Jordan at first pledged that cuts would follow that 80-20 split, but in the city’s proposed list of positions to cut, only 12% are non-union.
“It’s crucial that the middle-management administrative bloat is addressed and funds are allocated to programming, partnerships, operations and maintenance and our future generations,” said Anna Brown, a CPPW member and parks and rec community engagement coordinator, at a March 18 budget listening session.
AFSCME Local 189 president Rob Martineau told a city council committee in March that he’s heard the same refrain from management over his 25 years as a Portland Water Bureau employee.
“During times of economic growth or contraction, in labor negotiations, during major infrastructure projects, in the needs of the most vulnerable, in just doing what we all know is the right thing, the one constant message is, ‘broke, broke, broke,” Martineau said.
In 2018, the city cut roughly one-third of the recreation workers represented by Laborers Local 483, forcing a sharp reduction in programming. Laborers Local 483 Secretary-Treasurer Ryan Sotomayor said the current proposed cuts and the public response echo what happened in 2018.
“They always try to balance the budget on frontline workers, unless there’s public outcry,” Sotomayor said.
At a March 18 budget listening session, Portland Parks and Recreation worker Rory Read said cuts shouldn’t hit Laborers Local 483, because they’re the ones that do the work that’s most directly experienced by the public. Local 483 represents city workers who clear brush at parks, empty park trash cans, clean park bathrooms, and interact with the public at city community centers, Read said. In the last five years, Read said Portland Parks & Recreation has added around 100 analysts, coordinators, managers and supervisors. And yet now that the bureau is in budget cut mode, the proposal is to cut utility workers, recreation staff, and maintenance workers.
“If you cut us, people are going to know it,” Read said.
