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Updated December 17 at 4:55 pm to include comments from Council President Elana Pirtle-Guiney.
Staff from Portland City Council offices have announced plans to unionize their workplace. In an emailed statement provided to the Mercury Wednesday, a spokesperson said City Council aides and operations staff have decided to unionize with the Communication Workers of America (CWA) Local 7901.
“Council staff play a critical role in making City Hall work,” a December 17 press release from the newly formed Council Alliance of Workers (CAW) states. “However, staff have experienced significant instability across offices during this transition. The formation of CAW is intended to provide greater structure, consistency, and protection for staff working across City Hall.”
Organizers sent an email to city councilors and colleagues Wednesday afternoon announcing the formation of the union.
The unit of eligible employees includes 41 staff members across all City Council offices. Nearly 60 percent have signed union cards requesting representation by CWA, and paperwork was filed with the Employment Relations Board December 17, according to CWA 7901 President Meg Ward. Signed union cards are a formal way of authorizing a labor union to represent a group of workers, and the Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act has protected public workers’ rights to collective bargaining and union representation since 1973. The board governs all public sector unions across the state of Oregon.
While the city employs staff represented by several labor unions, Council office staffers have historically not been part of any represented labor group.
“Portland is a union town, and the City of Portland works with 14 unions presently,” a CAW spokesperson told the Mercury. “We’re proud to become part of this pro-worker tradition.”
Eligible employees will include staff who work for local elected officials in every district. That includes employees who help city councilors manage schedules, administrative staff shared by each district, policy analysts, communications staff, and other council operations staff. In other words, the unit will cover people who help the City Council work behind the scenes. The operations office is overseen by the council president, currently Elana Pirtle-Guiney.
“I am a strong believer in unions, and support every worker’s right to form a union,” Pirtle-Guiney said in a December 17 statement to the Mercury. “That doesn’t stop at my staff or any Council staff.”
CAW says the new union wants to keep their efforts apolitical in the face of an ideologically diverse City Council, and they believe everyone needs to be supported in the work they do regardless of ideology.
“CAW is an apolitical organization representing council staff across offices and viewpoints,” the CAW press release states. “The union is not focused on advancing policy agendas or influencing legislative outcomes. Instead, its mission is to ensure that council staff feel safe, protected, and supported in their roles — conditions that are crucial to the effective functioning of Portland’s City Council.”
Organizers told the Mercury they are interested in making Portland a better place. Their organizing efforts are intended to stabilize the government system, which has been in a period of transition since voters approved the new city charter in 2022.
They cited other concerns, for instance, job descriptions for operations staff can change without notice. The newly unionized staff say they want employees to have “clear job description and understanding of their duties and where any potential changes to job descriptions are thoughtful, feasible and discussed proactively and collaboratively.”
“We are seeking adequate support structures, including realistic upper limits of hours worked, accommodations that are consistent with federal ADA protections, and equitable compensation structures in line with the City of Portland’s core values,” a CAW spokesperson added.
Keri Ferraro, CWA Local 7901 Area 4 vice president, said the effort is about employees having a voice in their workplace, and not angling to be political.
“We’re really excited at 7901 to see organizing efforts in any capacity, where it’s giving the workers that perform the work more of a voice in their workplace, and having a safer environment to work in general,” Ferraro said.
Ferraro added that having an agreement in place between workers and the management structure leads to better productivity, understanding, and predictability of the expectations of the job.
“It’s common for places that even are happy in their workplace to just want that extra level of understanding of what the path of their workplace environment is going to look like for the next couple of years,” Ferraro said.
While some workers are hired by city councilors for their role, councilors are not involved in hiring decisions for everyone. Each district office shares some administrative staff. Council aides and senior council aides are hired by council members, and the job descriptions are broad enough to capture a host of responsibilities, according to the city’s job class specifications.
The unionization efforts come amid a sea change at City Hall as Portland wraps up its first year under the new voter-approved government structure. All 12 city councilors received endorsements from labor groups during their campaign.
“CAW is not in the business of influencing policy or legislation,” CAW said in its letter to city councilors. “CAW’s sole mission is to advocate for workers and the conditions and benefits they need. We look forward to working and negotiating with leaders that understand the importance of organized labor in building stronger communities and economies.”
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Jeremiah Hayden
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