AMERICAN LABOUR-PORTLAND:

SUPPORT PORTLAND IWW SOCIAL WORKERS:

The following appeal is from the website of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), and it asks for your support for members of the IWW in Portland Oregon.

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Support Needed For Portland IWW Social Workers:
Workers at Streetlight / Porchlight Youth Shelters are asking for support from Fellow Workers in the IWW in an escalation campaign against Janus Youth Programs. The workers have been in wage re-negotiations with Janus since January but the negotiations have been shaky since the beginning.

Janus has repeatedly insisted that they don’t have to bargain and have refused to put forward any counter-proposals that would allow for the modest demands that the Union is seeking. Janus has denied the overwhelming majority of Information Requests throughout the course of negotiations as well, further hampering the negotiations. Attempts to reach out to the National Labor Relations Board have been fruitless as well despite evidence of “bad faith bargaining” on behalf of Janus.

The Union has dropped several of the original demands including a Spanish speaking pay differential in order to focus on a Cost Of Living Adjustment (if Janus provides it for other non-union Janus employees) and a raise for the On-Call (Sub) positions when they reach Bargaining Unit status. Janus’ last communication to the Union was that they were done with negotiations and that workers should wait until next year when the full contract expires to re-negotiate.
The first step in escalation was to have Portland IWW members and other local allies put pressure on Janus through a phone and email blast. The next step is to ask FW’s from across the world to do the same.

Below is a rough draft script for when making phone calls or sending emails. Phone calls are most effective but emails help as well. We are trying to hit them Monday (August 3rd) through Wednesday (August 5). Please take some time and make a couple calls during those days to help out workers at Streetlight / Porchlight Youth Shelters. If you have any questions or would like to get more involved please contact Chris at chrisagenda@gmail.com .

Contact the following (between 9am and 5pm Western time):
Dennis Morrow—Executive Director for Janus Youth Programs dmorrow@janusyouth.org 503.542.4608 (this number is for his assistant Martha)
Kevin Donnegan—Program Director for Shelters, part of Janus’ Bargaining Team kdonegan@janusyouth.org 503.880.5866
Andrew Altschul—Janus Lawyer, part of Bargaining Team Andrew@baaslaw.com 503 974 5022

"My name is __________ from the (name of city) IWW. (Molly Note- you don't have to be an IWW member to participate in this campaign-modify your script accordingly) I'm writing/calling to support the workers at Streetlight and Porchlight Youth Shelters.

I urge you to give a raise to Bargaining Unit Sub-Workers. This increase is a minimal cost to the agency and goes a long way to improving services at the shelter. The Union workers there have dropped some of their original requests and we expect Janus to respond in kind.

You have not bargained at all the past several months. You have turned down almost every information request and you have not budged an inch on meeting any of the Union's demands. The bargaining unit have shown that Janus does save a significant amount of money by having subs cover shifts.The money that was being saved was budgeted for wages.

Workers should not have to wait until next year's contract negotiations to get this raise and it is shameful that you have spent months avoiding a wage re-opener that you are contractually obligated to participate in.

We are watching and expect to see these demands met."