Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Forestry Bargaining Began February 5, 2013

ODOT Coalition bargaining, of which Forestry is a part, began Tuesday night February 5th. At this and the next meeting scheduled for March 5th is where our proposals will be handed back and forth, with the real discussions on of the proposals coming March 19th.  Forestry specific proposals given to the Local from Management were clean-up language putting the current name of the Department of Forestry into the contract and a proposal to incorporate the Work Capacity Test in the body of the contract and make changes to the health and safety part of the test.  The Local did not have any proposals to share across the table.

Representing the Local were delegates Doug Firoved and Dave Wells, who were joined by member Jim Neuman.  Representing Management were Human Resource Generalists, Heidi Steiner and Dan Jones.  All members of the Local are invited to attend.

Bargaining is being held at the OPRD Salem Headquarters located at 725 Summer Street NE and the Coalition meets at 5:30 pm with actual face to face bargaining beginning about 6:30 pm.  The next meetings are scheduled for March 5 and 19, April 2, 16, and 30.  No dates have been scheduled into May.  A Forestry Conference call is scheduled for Sunday February 10th at 6:00 to discuss proposals and orgainize for the contract campaign, the phone number is available from welpt@seiu503.org.