Forestry Local 629 April Meeting Minutes

On Saturday, April 26, 2014 the Forestry Local held a statewide meeting in Salem.  It was a full agenda and we completed our work by about 2:30 pm.

Agenda items:

State of Our Local:

Our Local officers, David Wells, Brandon Ferguson and Jim Neuman were sworn in as President, Vice President and Secretary respectively.  Tim Seitz our Treasurer could not attend do to a family commitment. Each of the officers had a chance to share their goals for the next two years.  Brandon looks to focus on both the employee and public safety and improve employee relationships within the bargaining group and greater community. Jim’s focus was on bargaining and how to improve opportunities for temporary and seasonal employees and those in the NRS series. Dave’s goal is to develop the Local’s leadership and recruit additional Stewards so no one would ever have to go alone when called into a supervisor’s office.  Ross Grami our new SEIU 503 Statewide coordinator provided an update on membership numbers and Stewards.

Steward Recruitment:

To fill out our Local’s leadership the following Steward recruitment assignments were made:

Jim- West Oregon and Astoria

Brandon- John Day and LaGrande

Dave- Salem, Grants Pass and Coos Bay

Stewards are selected from the membership where they work, following (generally) this process:

• A 10 day notice of an election for a Steward is provided in the worksite
• There is a call for nominations, you must be a member to be a Steward and to vote, you can join at the meeting
• Those present can decide how they want to vote by voice or ballot
• The results need to be announced to the membership and SEIU 503 informed
• And it is recommended that the new Steward attend training offered by SEIU on Union 101 and Contract Enforcement

Forestry Local Promotional Items:

The Local will purchase 200 baseball style caps with an Elliot State Forest theme and 300 long and short sleeved T-shirts, green with our Local’s design.

Labor/ Management Agenda Items:

Our next L/M meeting will be held June 5 in Salem.  There was a really good discussion of what will be discussed from everyone present and we now have a full agenda.

District Concerns:

The seasonal firefighter training schedule will be requested so Union orientations can be provided.  Other District concerns will be addressed more completely in separate posts.

The next meeting is tentatively scheduled for October 11, 2014 in either Sisters or Prineville.

Forestry Local Statewide Meeting - April 26

The next Forestry Local Statewide meeting will be Saturday, April 26, 2014 starting at 10:00 am in Salem at SEIU 503 Headquarters located at 1730 Commercial Street.  The full agenda is currently being developed and if you have ideas please contact any of your statewide officers or our new coordinator, Ross Grami (gramir@seiu503.org).  A call-in option will be available.


Ideas currently on the agenda include:

• installation and swearing in of your new officers
• discussion of agenda items for our next Labor/ Management meeting June 5th
• steward recruitment and assignments
• leadership development
• reports from your officers
• purchase of promotional items for the Local (Elliott State Forest hats?)
• District/ Area concerns

The plan is to conclude about 2:00 pm and select our next meeting location and date (perhaps a co-located meeting with ODOT).


Lunch will be provided, lodging and mileage according to SEIU 503 Administrative Policies.


I hope you can make time to help manage our Local by either calling in or attending in person.  The call-in number will be available from Ross Grami at gramir@seiu503.org or myself at (503) 801-8468.

Forestry Leadership Elected for 2014-2016

Forestry Local 629's leadership has been elected for 2014-2016, thank you to all who voted.  Your elected leaders are part of bargaining team, represent the Forestry Local at SEIU 503's General Council, and are members of the Dept. of Forestry's Statewide Labor/ Management Committee.

President: David Wells
Vice President: Brandon Ferguson
Secretary: Jim Neuman
Treasurer: Tim Seitz

Forestry Local Ballot Deadline - March 14, 2014

For Forestry Local 629's leadership election, ballots must be received by March 14, 2014.

Towards a Politically and Socially Sustainable Forest, Part Two

The Northwest Oregon State Forest Management plan is currently in a revision process and there are a number of ways to contribute to the process.  One is attend one of the Alternative Forest Management Plan meetings scheduled for Astoria, Forest Grove and Tillamook.  Another is to become part of ODF's online community and to join this group click here:   Join ODF Online Community

Please consider taking an active part in the development of the new plan and help shape the future of these forests that have benefited from a long history of care.

Towards a Politically and Socially Sustainable Forest

How will the Big 3 (Astoria, Forest Grove, Tillamook) and the Little 3 (North Cascades, Philomath, West Oregon) State Forests be managed?  This was question posed to a group of eight forest stakeholders representing diverse interests by Governor Kitzhaber. Their task, in four meetings, to find commonality in a forest management approach that would be financially viable for the Oregon Department of Forestry and be politically and socially sustainable. Governor Kitzhaber placed in the groups hands the ability to shape forest management in our Oregon and he had great optimism that options could be found where common ground existed.

I attended the last two of these meetings with the goal of keeping the group talking and having as much advance notice as possible to forest management changes that our Local’s membership would be asked to implement.

The main thing I have to report is the support the represented stakeholders have in your work with the Department of Forestry.  But the current Forest Management Plan's application of Structure Based Management was faulted for its not providing enough conservation benefit and timber harvest value.  Ed Kamholz, citizen representative, noted however that the “FMP had been relatively trouble free (from litigation) for the past 13½ years”.  That optimistic clear path as a way to increase both conservation and timber harvest, which many in the audience had hoped for, was not provided for the Board of Forestry to follow.  What was clear though, when it comes to the management of Oregon’s State Forests everyone had their game face on.

Local Election Timeline and Other Decisions and Dates in 2014 (to date)

Here is what I have for our Forestry Leadership election timeline and other decisions needed and dates that have been set so far in 2014.

January 13: Nominations to elect the Forestry Local 629 Leadership positions of President, Vice-President, Secretary and Treasurer open.

January 23 1800-1930: Forestry conference call primarily to discuss and decide our position on the unification of SEIU Local 503 and SEIU Local 49.  The conference call number is available from our SEIU Staff Organizer, Timothy Welp at (503) 408-4090 x 434 or Local President David Wells at (503) 801-8468.

January 28 at 1700: Nominations for Forestry Leadership positions close

January 30: Labor/ Management meeting in Salem

February 1 (tentative): General Council meeting in Portland to decide if the unification of SEIU Locals 503 and 49 should be referred to a general membership vote. Automatic Forestry Delegates are the President, Vice-President, Secretary, the alternate delegate is the Treasurer.

February 7: Forestry Leadership candidate statements due

February 21: Forestry Leadership election ballots mailed

March 5: Last date to request a replacement ballot for the Forestry Leadership election

March 14:  Forestry Leadership election ballots due

March 21: Forestry Leadership results reported

April 26: Statewide Forestry Meeting in Coos Bay

August 14-16 General Council, policy setting and budget approval of our Union for the next two years