Mt. Hood union works to insure fair wages

Mt. Hood’s various unions have been working to make sure employees receive fair wages, and that they are reflective of costs of living.

Currently, only one employee union is negotiating contract terms: The group of classified, or non-teaching, staff workers on campus.

Corey Huston, Mt. Hood’s science lab coordinator and classified association president, said that when representatives of the group  negotiate with the MHCC administration, the “conversation has always been that we support equity, that we support a fair wage for fair work.”

The classified association has been negotiating a contract to replace one that expires on June 30.

Talks have been ongoing since January, and, according to Huston, the contract is close to being settled. “For the first couple of months of negotiations, we moved through (contract) articles fairly quickly; most of those articles were non-financial, so a lot of it was housekeeping, clarifying language,” he said.

When the negotiations reached financial matters, some difficulties arose. “When we were prepared to have that conversation, there were certainly some mis-communications, and I think that’s probably on both sides,” said Huston.

Talks have focused on cost of living adjustments (COLAs) and health coverage.

“We sacrificed in our last contract – a significant amount of potential earnings – and came to an agreement that allowed us to have a good healthcare package,” said Huston.

A standardized performance evaluation is also being negotiated. Currently, an evaluation consists of cutting and pasting an employee’s job description, and filling a box saying the employee needs improvement in, meets, or exceeds the description, said Huston.

“The college, since it (the evaluation process) was implemented, hasn’t seen anything come from it – there’s no metrics on it being useful, and it is an onerous process,” he said.

Once the contract is settled, and all parties have agreed on terms, it should take effect July 1 – assuming all goes well. Classified contracts have typically lasted three years, but the length of the next contract is still yet to be decided.

The full-time faculty association has agreed to extend its current contract for one additional year, making it run through August 2018, instead of next year, said the group’s president, mathematics instructor Tambi Boyle. Under their contract,  full-time instructors at Mt. Hood should receive a one percent COLA increase each year.

For the 2017-18 school year, negotiators agreed to a 0-3 percent COLA increase, meaning that if the average COLA for the Portland/Oregon area is higher than 3 percent, full-time faculty will not receive more than 3 percent. If the area’s COLA actually dips, full-time faculty pay would not decrease.

“We were really grateful working with the college, it was a really excellent meeting, and we got it done fast,” said Boyle about agreeing to extend the current contract language. “ I hope more bargaining could be like that. This is a rare instance, from what I’ve seen.”

Mt. Hood’s part-time faculty contract, a four-year agreement reached in 2013, is set to run through June 2017, meantime.