Support workers at Mt. Hood Community College voted to approve a new contract by a 98% margin on March 17, eight months after their last contract expired. It provides a 6% raise retroactive to July 1, 2024; a 5.5% raise in the second year; and a 5.75% raise for the final year of the three-year contract. That was three times the 1.65% average cost-of-living raises in the previous 2019-2023 contract.
The Mt. Hood Community College Classified Employee Association had declared an impasse.
“This is definitely the most mobilized and organized we’ve been in a long time,” said union president Michael Flores when the union was moving toward a potential strike in early March.
The union represents around 240 workers in a wide range of positions, from groundskeepers and public safety officers to academic advisors and accountants.
The union increased membership by 20% as negotiations heated up.
Flores said more than half of the unit is topped out on the 12-step salary schedule, meaning the cost of living adjustments are the only annual raises they get.
The contract also eliminated the lowest-paid salary ranges, which applied to janitors and started at $16.57 per hour.
The new contract also restored the seniority of workers in the Childcare Resource and Referral program. When they were added to the unit last year, the college had reduced those workers’ seniority down to zero as if they were new employees.
