Lake Oswego labor union is ‘unified and determined’ during negotiations

The union that represents many city of Lake Oswego workers is unsatisfied with offers it has received during labor negotiations.

The Lake Oswego Municipal Employees Association sent a statement of solidarity — which included signatures from 144 workers — to the City Council and Union President Scott Symer also testified during a meeting Tuesday, June 18 to clarify the union’s position and requests from the local government.

“I have had the privilege of serving on every union bargaining team since the year 2000. I have never before seen our bargaining team more unified and more determined. City workers keep faith with the city day in and day out. We are proud of the work we do here and proud of what this city is because of our work,” Symer said at the meeting. “City employees have made extraordinary efforts to pull this community through all the crises of recent years. Now it’s time for the city to keep faith with us. The wage proposals we have seen so far from the city’s team are frankly not going to get us to an agreement that we can accept. We urge you to direct your bargaining team to put a wage proposal on the table that will meet your employees’ needs.”

The city and the union — which represents workers other than police, fire and management — have been in negotiations over a new contract. The current labor agreement expires June 30. Deliberations among City Council regarding the negotiations have taken place during executive sessions which are closed to the public. Public bodies can choose to allow members of the media to sit in on the sessions, but not report on the discussions. The city of Lake Oswego has chosen not to allow media in these sessions.

In his testimony, Symer said that inflation and cost of living increases have outpaced wages and that many of his coworkers are struggling to support their families.

“Our proposal will make up the ground we have lost since 2021. It’s fair and reasonable,” Symer said.

Along with “providing fair and living wages,” the statement of solidarity mentioned the desire for the city to “Uphold its values and mission by supporting employees’ work in diversity, equity, and inclusion and support employees’ goals in developing and furthering their careers with the City to encourage long-term employee recruitment and retention.”

The association represents 166 employees.

The previous agreement led to a 4% increase in wages for the period July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023 with wage increases for the next year hovering between 2% and 4% depending on changes to the consumer price index.

According to state rules, parties have to engage in good faith labor negotiations for 150 days before a party can request a mediator.

City Manager Martha Bennett said she cannot comment on the ongoing negotiations.