AFSCME Local 88 has proposed immediate $3 raises and expanded paid leave in bargaining with Multnomah County that has now stretched out three months past expiration of the most recent contract.
Local 88 represents around 4,000 Multnomah County employees, making it one of the largest Oregon locals of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
Local 88 President Jackie Tate said the county’s bargaining team has been difficult to work with this time. Local 88’s negotiations commonly go past the contract expiration date, but they’d be farther along if the county had countered more union proposals instead of just rejecting them, Tate said.
Local 88 took that message to county commissioners at their Oct. 2 meeting.
“From denying us living wages to literally laughing at us at the bargaining table, your current team has been a poor representation of the county’s mission, vision and values,” bargaining team member Megan Gallagher, a jail counselor, told commissioners.
Tate said it doesn’t help that the county is in layoff mode, with a round of layoffs completed in the summer and another round expected this month. The county laid off five AFSCME-represented workers in June, a county spokesperson said. Additional positions are expected to be cut and added this fall as part of a budget rebalance, but it’s too soon to say how many workers will be laid off.
Paid leave for immigrants
Amid an ongoing immigration crackdown, Local 88 is proposing a new contract provision allowing workers to pull from an existing catastrophic leave bank to cover immigration and citizenship appointments for the worker or their family, including court proceedings and meetings with attorneys. The catastrophic leave bank allows workers to donate their unused paid vacation or holiday time to coworkers who are ill or injured but have already used up all their paid leave. Currently, county workers can use 40 hours of paid sick leave for immigration and citizenship proceedings. The county agreed to allow the use of catastrophic leave for citizenship and immigration purposes, but the union and county are still debating how much leave can be used, according to the union.
The union is also asking the county to agree not to retain copies of workers’ requests for the immigration-related leave, out of concern that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) could access those documents.
Trauma leave
County workers sometimes get paid administrative leave after they face traumatic experiences on the job, like a front desk worker subjected to racial epithets or threats of violence or a medical examiner investigating a particularly distressing death. Such “trauma leave” varies between departments and managers as a form of paid administrative leave, so Local 88 is proposing consistent procedures across the bargaining unit. The county rejected the union’s proposal without offering alternatives, the union said in a Sept. 29 bargaining update.
Wages
Workers say the county’s offer isn’t enough.
Local 88’s most recent wage proposal, shared Sept. 2, included an immediate $3 per hour increase to the starting wage for each position. That translates to a 5% raise for the highest paid positions and a 15% raise for the lowest paid positions. Current hourly wages range from $20 for laundry attendants to $73 for senior IT administrators. The union is proposing another $2 raise in 2026 and $2 in 2027.
For its part, the county is proposing an immediate 2.4% raise followed by inflation-based raises of at least 1% and as much as 4%.
“The county has communicated very clearly that any wage increase over 2.4% would put the county in a deficit, which could result in layoffs or program cuts,” bargaining team member Jessica Crowson, a medicolegal death investigator, said in an Oct. 6 update video for members. “This is frustrating as they chose not to budget for flexibility in COLA (cost of living adjustments), but it is our members who would pay the price if we push for more.”
Tate said the union was proposing a flat dollar amount raise instead of a percentage in order to give a bigger boost to the lowest paid workers.
“We’re really concerned about bringing up the floor for the low wage workers in our union, so that they can afford to actually live in Multnomah County,” Tate said.
The county and union have requested mediation through the Oregon Employment Relations Board but a first date hasn’t been set.
