EMPLOYEES OF one of Portland’s largest homeless service
providers say they could vote to go on strike in January unless they
get the pay raise that has already been approved by Portland City
Council.
Transition Projects, Inc. (TPI) runs two homeless shelters in
Portland, and has more than 50 workers represented by a sub-group of
the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME) union, Council 75. The average salary for these workers is
$26,748, according to AFSCME, whose bargaining team is asking for a 3.5
percent cost-of-living increase from TPI. TPI officials are only
prepared to offer two percent, the union says.
But TPI employees already met with Portland city commissioners in
June, to persuade them to agree to a $73,000 increase in funding for
TPI, to cover the cost-of-living increase. AFSCME council
representative Rob Wheaton says it would cost TPI just $66,000 to give
employees the 3.5 percent they are seeking, but that TPI is claiming it
now needs some of the $73,000 to pay for increased utility costs at the
agency.
“It’s as though we don’t have to pay for utilities ourselves,” says
Hugh Singh, the laundry and clothing coordinator at TPI’s men’s shelter
at NW 5th and Glisan.
“I’m not just poor, I’m po’. I can’t even afford the ‘o’ and the
‘r,'” says Elvyss Argueta, who helps 500 homeless people a day at the
shelter’s service access center. “I want to help these people, but at
the same time, I have to be able to live.”
“I feel insulted because I feel like they’re saying they don’t care
if I stick around or not, and that they can replace me,” says Rachel
Hansen, who works in veterans’ care, also at the Glisan shelter.
“It’s a racket,” says Wheaton, who points out that TPI has run at an
operating excess with revenue averaging $250,000 a year for the last
eight years, according to its tax returns, filed with the IRS.
Meanwhile TPI Executive Director Doreen Binder, whose salary is listed
as $82,422 on TPI’s IRS return for the year 2006-2007, told the
Mercury she has no comment on the negotiations.
“We are quietly trying to play a constructive role in the TPI
situation,” says Commissioner Nick Fish, who oversees homeless
services. “And I’m very hopeful that it will be resolved.”