Local 328 Shop Talk

A comment was submitted by a member:

Hi, although I am a union member and generally support it, my experience in my department is that the most vocal advocates for the union are the laziest employees; those avoiding responsibility and simply going from one paid leave of absence to another, looking for more ways to get paid w/o doing their job. They fail trainings and probationary periods because they make no effort to learn the material given them.
Our managers are unable to hold employees accountable because pay is not linked to job performance as it should be and when issues arise employees simply claim discrimination knowing the union will fight for them. Employees who fail trainings and probationary periods aren't held back, instead other employees do their share of the work the rest of their career. Please remind union members that being in a union doesn't just mean scamming the system and that union leadership expects them to contribute productively to their team; taking notes during training, studying materials etc. Our union employees create a glut of dead weight staff in our area that managers are powerless to mitigate because all the tools to shape a productive team have been taken away through contract negotiations.

The response from our President:

I hear your frustration and understand as I’ve been in similar situations at OHSU and management is not powerless. The agreed upon contract by OHSU and AFSCME provides us with protections to assure a fair process. Management simply needs to follow the process we’ve both agreed on & they’re more than able to issue directives and discipline. Often times they choose to just ignore the issue, and that’s unfortunate for everyone. Sounds to me like your co-workers may not be happy in their jobs & should seek another position. We have many resources to help direct them to a job they might enjoy. I would introduce them to the new Labor Management Center formerly Career Development Center.

Thank you,

Jaimie Sorenson ,
President AFSCME Local 328