MESD workers get tentative agreement!

(Portland 3/23/05) -- Workers at the Multnomah Education Service District in AFSCME Local 1995 nailed down a tentative agreement with the MESD bargaining committee last night just before midnight!

Local 1995 members had been attempting to negotiate a contract with MESD representatives for over a year, and their contract expired in July, 2005. Thank you to all JwJ pledgers who helped by joining in with informational pickets and for coming out to the rally and MESD Board meeting last Tuesday, March 21st. The testimony at the Board meeting was awesome. The extremely unified MESD workers were eloquent beyond words .  The union's strike preparations and the strong union bargaining committee were key in this victory. Also important was the strong showing on Tuesday night by the workers, union and community members as well as by Dan Gardner and Kurt Schrader. All these factors helped break down management's stonewalling at negotiations.

Management ended up dropping their insistence on pushing employees into part time status, with big cuts in health care coverage. Employees will get what the union proposed: 2% raises for a two year contract. (Management insisted on 1%.) Additionally, health care costs will not rise for workers during the period of the contract. This is a huge victory for all of us!