A group of Portland city workers and union leaders held a rally in front of City Hall Saturday afternoon as the union representing them has planned a vote on whether to authorize a strike. “Our contract negotiations are at an impasse,” says Jeannette DeCastro, the steward and chapter chair of Local 189. “We are not happy with the city’s last, best and final offer. We have felt disrespected over the last couple years due to COVID.
“City employees have been through a lot of challenges in the past couple of years and we’ve been thanked by email and verbally and I appreciate that,” DeCastro said, “but when all of our financial requests or vacation requests or safety requests are pushed back upon it starts to erode that sentiment.”
District Council of Trade Unions representing municipal trade employees, said it reached an impasse with the city in bargaining for a new contract. Organizers said wage raises in the city’s last offer were not high enough to compensate for inflation.
More than 1,200 city workers who perform functions such as maintaining Portland’s drinking water system, keeping sewage flowing, and making sure street lights function may go on strike as soon as Jan. 20.
A strike authorization could be voted on as soon as Monday. DeCastro said the union is very broad and a strike could impact a wide variety of services like water treatment, street repair and building inspections. A strike would grind some municipal functions to a halt. Officials with the City of Portland have not yet responded.
