Eye On The 503 - News

Voting continues with Local Officers

Scott — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:39:32 +0000

More important elections are on-going

Congratulations are due to our newly elected Board of Directors. Ballot counting was finished on Saturday, March 6^th, 2010. Bart Lewis, President of the Retirees Local 001 and chair of the elections committee, called the candidates personally to let them know the election results. If you would like to see the entire list of Directors, go to the SEIU 503 web site. It's posted prominently on the front page. read more »

Get in the vote for your Board of Directors

Scott — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 06:37:27 +0000

Vote Now for your Board of Directors

Ballots for the Board of Directors have been mailed and you should be receiving them shortly if you haven't already. They were sent on February 8, 2010. If you still don't have yours by next week, you may want to contact SEIU 503 HQ for a replacement. They are due February 24, 2010 so you want to have enough time to return your ballot for counting. read more »

Union Election Proceedings Start

Scott — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 06:10:19 +0000

Hopefully everyone has received the latest copy of The 503 Voice. This is a hugely important issue that everyone should read.

Page 1 starts out with a bang, covering the YES campaign. This is the campaign to pass Measures 66 and 67 at the special election in January. If you aren't familiar with this issue, you should be! The estimated $733 Million budget deficit that will be created if these measures fail will affect far more than just SEIU 503 members. It will affect critical services for the citizens of Oregon. read more »

The "YES" Campaign

Scott — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:23:02 +0000

The battle is on again! Big business and the wealthy want a free ride at our expense!

Last Tuesday, a series of signs went up all over, especially along the I-5 corridor between Portland and Salem. You may have seen them. They're the ones talling you to "Vote NO on Job Killing Taxes."

This is especially galling when you consider that some of the backers behind this initiative are the banks! Would those be the same banks that just got BILLIONS of dollars in Federal BAILOUT money? Why YES, they would! read more »

September Bargaining Update

Scott — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:56:04 +0000

The biggest news right now is that OUS has reached a tentative agreement. If you have more information on this, or the of the other ongoing bargaining, please post that information here.

The vote on the DAS tentative agreement is imminent. We'll update when those results are known as well. read more »

DAS/OUS Bargaining Conference 2009

Scott — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:34:19 +0000

As promised, here's a report on the Bargaining Conference that took place last Saturday, August 15^th, 2009. There were a lot of familiar faces, and some new ones (to me).

The conference started at 9:00 AM with a welcome from SEIU Local 503 President Linda Burgin. She spoke about how the initial fast-track bargaining had served to involve the members and keep them involved for the entire bargaining session. She also mentioned that we came out of this with a, "fair contract in the worst economic times of our lives." read more »

August Bargaining Update

Scott — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 01:49:17 +0000

Bargaining continues of course. While the DAS coalition moves forward with a tentative agreement, the rest of the bargaining units continue to fight hard battles.

The first update from the Union came out on August 4^th: read more »

DAS Bargaining Reaches Tentative Agreement

Scott — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 04:17:34 +0000

The big news today is the announcement that the DAS bargaining teams have reached a tentative agreement. The following arrived by e-mail just before 3:00 AM this morning.

Dear SEIU member:

After eight months of negotiations, we have reached a tentative agreement with the State on a new two-year contract.

read more »

The rumors of my death

Scott — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 07:03:07 +0000

"The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." - Mark Twain

Earlier in July, we were asked if we knew that Leslie Frane--our Executive Director for Local 503--was leaving to take a job back east? That was news to the Eye. Since this wasn't coming from any of the regular union activist-types, we thought we better check into it. It sure sounded like a rumor, but you never know. read more »

July Bargaining Update

Scott — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:55:55 +0000

Latest Updates: 28-Jul-2009

No update from the bargaining table yet. However, there is an update scheduled for those that work in the Capital Mall area. If you do, there's a unity break and frisbee toss scheduled for this Wednesday, June 8^th, 2009. Details below: read more »