At approximately
12:30am June 18th your Parks
Local 733 delegates agreed with other ODOT coalition delegates to approve of
the final tentative agreements discussed in this contract’s bargaining
session. Although we and other locals
won some small victories, we did not however reach a compromise in article 66.3
in regards to allowing our seasonals to carry over up to 40 hours of vacation
into the next season. The response from
management is that seasonals are hired each year to work and not take
vacations. Even when we discussed scenarios
about seasonals with over 10 years of service and not able to spend a few days
with their families on a holiday weekend, management refused to budge. At the bitter end, we even offered compromises
that would only allow seasonals with 6-9 month long positions to qualify for
the carry over, yet still they refused any offers.
Your Parks
delegates were outraged that our agency refuses to grant such a simple request
out of respect for our Park Ranger Assistants who have shown their loyalty over
the years by returning each summer to make sure the restrooms are clean, our
visitors are safe and having a memorable experience, and giving a needed hand
to our Park Rangers!
If you are
as disappointed as we are, then I urge you to make contact with your shop steward
or your Local 733 officers and get involved. If this is an important topic or you have
other issues that need to be addressed, then this is a great opportunity to
start building up support for the next contract negotiation.
In the
meantime, the battle is not over. We are
still fighting for Healthcare, COLA’s, and retirement at central table. We will keep you posted as we receive updates.
