Local employees picketed outside of the Benton County Courthouse on Wednesday morning in a continued effort to attain fair wages and improve workplace safety.
AFSCME Local 2064, the Benton County chapter of the nationwide AFSCME trade union, has been negotiating terms with the county since January. After negotiations came to a standstill in October, the workers voted to strike beginning Wednesday, Nov. 13.
Strikes were held at three other Corvallis locations including the Kalapuya Building, Avery Building and Health Services Center.
During the strike, Benton County decreased public service hours to 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to Benton County Public Information Officer Anne Thwaits.
Thwaits assured that essential county services remain in full operation, with the exception of the Johnson Dental Clinic at the Boys and Girls Club of Corvallis which is temporarily closed.
Representative-elect for the Oregon House District 16 Sarah Finger McDonald came out to support the strikers at the courthouse on Wednesday.
“I think that these are the people who really keep our county running and do really important work and we need to make sure that that work is valued,” McDonald said.
Strikers formed a picket line and chanted, “Hey, hey look around, Corvallis is a union town!” while intermittently receiving supportive honks from passing cars.
Communications Director for Oregon AFSCME Council 75 David Kreisman said the response from the county has stalled. “I would say they put their fingers in their ear,” he said.
“We’re very close to settling, and they (the county) are claiming that we need to budget for 55 vacant positions,” Kreisman said. “Some of them have been vacant for, we think, several years.”
Thwaits assured that the negotiations with AFSCME Local 2064 have not failed. “The county is completely committed to discuss,” she said. “The negotiation has not ended. It has not slowed down.”
Kreisman attested that the proposed safety measures have received pushback from the county.
The union’s initiative to improve workplace safety is in part motivated by the death of Pete Neuman, a Benton County employee who tragically died in 2019 when a faulty logging machine he was operating flipped over.
“People should be able to come to work and feel safe and not be put at risk,” McDonald said. “I would really like to see that issue resolved.”
“I think one of the challenges has been the complexity of the issues,” Thwaits said. “We’re talking about a contract that will provide the best total compensation package and the best possible working conditions for a large group of people, and that just takes time.”
Many strikers shared concerns about Corvallis’ cost of living, which has become so expensive that some employees can’t afford to live locally.
Licensed clinical social worker Rebecca Caldwell commutes to Corvallis from Dallas, which she said costs her “several hundred dollars a month.” Caldwell said that if housing were more affordable in Corvallis, she would choose to live here.
“We have too many workers who can’t afford to live where they work now, (and) it’s largely driven by housing costs,” McDonald said.
Darling Hernandez, a medical assistant at the Lincoln Health Center also commutes. “I used to live in Corvallis, but due to the cost of living, I moved to Albany,” she said.
Hernandez said she feels as though she does the work of three people but continues to live paycheck to paycheck.
Jasmine Jones, who works alongside Hernandez as an MA, said that management seems to be getting raises while workers like herself continue to struggle financially. “I think about getting a second job sometimes,” she explained.
Kreisman corroborated Jones’ concerns, saying “Management gave themselves 20, 30, or 40% raises, and have not been willing to raise the rates of our lowest paid workers to living wages.”
Employees attested that they were brought in for meetings with management and questioned about the strike. According to The National Labor Relations Act, meetings of this nature are illegal.
“They’re pulling people in for closed-door meetings… and it’s their manager reading from a script, asking if they’re gonna be here (striking) today,” said AFSCME Program Manager Kim Harman.
Harman mentioned that falsehoods are being intentionally spread to hinder striking efforts such as threats of fines or termination for blocking traffic.
According to a press release from their website, AFSCME filed two complaints of unfair labor practices against the county in response to union-busting tactics.
As of Thursday, Nov. 14, AFSCME Local 2064 is continuing to strike, according to a press release Kreisman shared in an email. Kreisman said the workers are prepared to be on strike for as long as it takes to come to a resolution with the county.
“This is an ongoing negotiation,” said Thwaits, “The next negotiation session with the mediator is scheduled for Friday. It’s going to go on all day, and the two parties will continue talking.”
