Just In Time For May Day, The Portland Parks Bureau Has Been Improperly Using Some of its Many Low-Paid Workers

• Illustration by Shiela Laufer

Some of the worst-paid city employees may be in for a sweet raise—despite City Hall’s best efforts.

The City of Portland today was ordered to stop giving low-paid temporary and seasonal Portland Parks and Recreation employees tasks that are supposed to be carried out by union members. In a 25-page ruling that capped a two year labor dispute, an arbitrator found the city is violating its labor agreement with Laborers’ Local 483 by using so-called “casual” workers to prop up a growing parks system that lacks sufficient full-time and part-time staffers.

This is a huge deal for the many parks employees who toil under yearly limits to how many hours they can work and meager wages. As we reported in February, some of these workers are on food stamps despite being city employees for years. Others told the Mercury they felt devalued and ashamed by a system that ensures they won’t receive benefits and are unlikely to obtain full-time work.

Today’s decision—on International Workers’ Day, fittingly—delves deeply into the legalese of union contracts, but it comes down to what Arbitrator David Stiteler termed the “idiomatic Duck test.” (“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.”) Essentially, if an employee does a job covered under a labor agreement, that employee should be covered by the same labor agreement.

“There is little disagreement that some RSPs [recreational support persons, the designation for the casual parks workers in question] are doing most, if not all, of the same duties that are and/or have been done by recreation leaders in the unit, as well as some duties that are and/or have been done by recreation coordinators,” Stiteler wrote.

The ruling contains a bunch of examples of unrepresented workers who do the same tasks as people “in the unit,” or covered by the labor agreement:

Chenille Holub works 30 to 35 hours a week at the front desk at Mt. Scott; her position is not in the unit. The individual who preceded her was a recreation leader in the unit.

Vanessa King is a preschool teacher at Montavilla; her position is in the unit. Before she was hired as a regular employee, she was an RSP working as a preschool teacher and had the same duties.

Esther Smith is in a recreation leader position in the center. There are about twice as many RSPs as unit positions, and there is no significant difference in the work they do, including handling permits, reservations, and rentals.

Et cetera.

This is nothing new. Portland Parks and Recreation has become increasingly reliant on casual workers as the recreation system expanded in recent decades. And those workers are far worse off than the City of Portland’s regular employees. As we reported in January, 97 percent of city workers who earn less than $15 an hour work for parks. Many of those employees earn less than $12 an hour.

Requests for comment from the parks bureau, the labor relations office, and Parks Commissioner Amanda Fritz’s office haven’t received meaningful responses.

The union is pleased.

“This is a win for all the staff in Portland’s Recreation centers,” said Erica Askin, Local 483’s business manager, in a statement to the Mercury. “For years these hard-working and caring people serving our community have been getting by paycheck to paycheck, and not honored the way they should be. Finally, it is recognized that their work is honorable union work, worthy of good wages, benefits, and rights on the job.”

Local 483 has actually been fighting to represent these kinds of workers for more than a decade, but filed this particular grievance in 2013. The city’s opposition was a bit contradictory, Stiteler notes in his ruling. First negotiators wanted case-by-case proof that casual workers were doing union members’ work. But the city also readily acknowledged (in the Mercury‘s previous story and before the arbitrator) seasonal employees were doing that work, and had for years.

The city’s essential argument, then, was that none of that mattered. As long as the parks workers were designated “casual,” the city said, it didn’t matter what work they were doing. The arbitrator disagreed.

“To remedy the violation, I will order the City to cease and desist from assigning bargaining unit work, as defined by the unit job descriptions, to non- unit employees, except on an incidental basis,” he wrote.

What happens next is a huge question, particularly with summer fast approaching. The union’s grievance claimed between 250 and 300 employees should be brought under its contract if the city wanted them to keep doing that work. That would be an expensive proposition. The lowest-paid employees under the union’s current contract make $16.71 after just six months of employment. They’re paid more than $20 an hour after three years.

But the city’s other alternative is to strictly prohibit its casual parks workers from doing union members’ jobs. If that happens, it could severely impact service at the parks bureau going forward.

Fritz’s office is expected to release a statement later this afternoon about the finding.

Update, 4:23 pm: Not much of a statement though. Here’s the quote a parks spokesman just forwarded from Fritz.

“We are currently reviewing the decision. I appreciate the Union’s expressed interest in meeting with the City to work with us on how best to move forward, and I look forward to finding solutions collaboratively.”

I followed up with a boatload of questions, including:

-Will this impact the parks bureau’s budget request this year?
-Will it impact the bureau’s ability to run recreation programs this summer?
-How much money would folding all of the affected casual workers into the contract cost?

“Everything remains to be seen at this point,” was the response from parks spokesman Mark Ross.

I should note this ruling comes as the city’s already looking at how best to deal with its seasonal workers. Earlier this year, Portland City Council ensured all of the city’s full time regular and contract workers will make at least $15. And Fritz, who has repeatedly stressed her commitment to bringing more seasonal workers on full time, has also said she’ll lead a task force looking into pay increases for the city’s 2,000 part-time and seasonal employees.