MHCC Workers Union Seeks Fairness
Anyone who has been on campus recently has likely noticed a poster or two calling for a “fair contract now” or a lanyard worn by an MHCC employee that says: “Stronger together” followed by “fair contract.” And it’s probably a somewhat familiar sight for many returning students from last year. But these posters aren’t being put up by members of Mt. Hood’s full-time faculty, who after a lengthy negotiating process finalized a new contract with the college. Rather, the current posters were put up by the Classified Employees Association, as that union group is still pushing to update a contract that expired last summer.
Sarah Aimone, vice president of the CEA and the coordinator for the AVID Center on campus, described classified employees as “the ones who keep the college running, from custodians to IT (information technology) to direct student services.” These are the workers who are not classroom instructors, or part of Mt. Hood’s administration team.
The contract for the classified staff expired on June 30, which means that classified staff “have been working without a contract for over a hundred days,” Aimone said. Aimone and CEA negotiator Corey Huston met with The Advocate on Oct. 10 to discuss the current state of negotiations with the school, which began last January.
Huston said the union and Mt. Hood administration have “fundamental differences” in regard to pay increases and promotional opportunities. In addition, the union is asking for the college to change how it defines who is a “family” member in the contract; to excuse maintenance employee absences during weather-related college closures for safety purposes; and to transition away from contracting out custodial work.
One of the big sticking points is pay: “These wages are not keeping up with what’s necessary to be able to live,” Aimone said. The previous contract shows that the adjusted cost of living section has not kept pace with inflation. Pay for Mt. Hood’s classified staff has increased only about 8% since 2019, while the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator shows that inflation had increased prices by 22% over the same period, by the time the association’s prior contract agreement had expired.
As a result, members of the CEA are having trouble remaining financially stable while working for the college. Aimone said employees have had challenges paying for their mortgages or groceries.
“It should be embarrassing to the college that a full-time custodian who has one dependent qualifies for SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits,” because “it is not okay that that pay is not sufficient enough,” she said. The CEA wants to see pay increases to those that teaching faculty and administration employees have received.
The reason the definition of “family member” is important to the CEA is because it determines just who an employee can take bereavement leave for (time off to grieve for following a death). Aimone said the CEA believes “that the administration’s definition of family excludes queer families, multi-generational families and any non-heteronormative family.” Huston said the employees would like the language in the new contract to use the broader definition used by the Oregon Medical Leave Act, which already applies to the college’s policies on family (birth and aftercare) and medical leave, for this benefit as well – extending “family” by either blood or affinity.
Another change the CEA is asking for is facilities staff to not be penalized for not being able to make it to campus while the campus is closed, as often occurs due to winter weather. Huston said the reason for this is, “We want to make sure they have a safe way to refuse that work if there is an emergency where they live while also providing additional incentives for being able to come in and work in those conditions.”
The association is also concerned the college has been outsourcing labor to third-party workers that would normally have been done by members of the association. Specifically, Huston said that they had discovered that the college was contracting out custodial work at a rate that could pay for an additional unionized, full-time employee. While there may be frustration, there is not yet open hostility over the drawn-out contract talks.
Huston said of the two sides, “I think like anything else we’ve been professional and civil with each other.”
Asked for comment on the negotiations, the MHCC administration supplied a written statement affirming its commitment to “a successor agreement that values the work of our classified employees and balances the needs of our students.”
“We respect the collective bargaining process and fully understand that it requires both parties to make concessions in order to reach a negotiated agreement. We are dedicated to the process and are confident that we will reach a negotiated agreement in a timely manner.”
Aimone observed that the talks were “making progress. It’s slow but, we’re making progress.”
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