Late in the night on Tuesday, April 4, on the eve of our Strike School and Strike Vote sessions, your elected bargaining team came to a comprehensive Tentative Agreement (TA) with the Port of Oakland.

This three-year-and-three-month contract includes solid wage increases, retroactive to the expiration of our last contract, improved disciplinary procedures and job protections, and retains our right to strike.

The Bargaining Team recommends this TA for ratification by SEIU 1021 members. (The vote schedule is o below.)

Economic Highlights

A three-year-and-three-month contract, with across-the- board raises of 14.5%:

• 5% effective July 1, 2022
• 5% effective July 1, 2023
• 2% effective July 1, 2024
• 2.5% effective January 1, 2025

Contract Term: July 1, 2022 – September 30, 2025.

Economic, Training & Schedule Highlights

• Expanded access to acting pay (members will receive acting pay for working in a higher classification for any amount of time)
• 6% extra duty pay for time worked outside the scope of the job description (per Policy AP407)
• $25 meal allowance (up from $18)
• Classification and compensation studies for Carpenter and Power Equipment Operator positions, and graveyard shift differentials
• Administrative workers will be eligible to use Flex Time Policy AP419 to adjust their schedules
• The Port will provide 12 hours minimum training per year for employees, including at least 6 hours of mandatory safety training
• All qualified Port workers are now eligible for Port Equipment Driver training

Better Disciplinary Language

Our old contract had language about “gross violations” that allowed the Port to skip our contractual progressive disciplinary processes: we have gotten this language deleted. Discipline and termination now require “good and sufficient cause.”

Skelly decisions on suspension and termination may start at the third step of the grievance process and get to arbitration faster.

Coaching and counseling now does not count as discipline.

Attendance monitoring is no longer automatic, and excludes protected leaves.

Choosing an arbitrator has been made simpler, which will speed up the process of getting to arbitration.

Custodial Issues & More

• Maintain caps on the use of temps and contractors
• NEW defined timeline for the meet and confer over the shift bid
• Cleaned up language about overtime assignments
• Improved language about changes to zones: only during the shift bid meet and confer or when there are “unanticipated operational needs”
• Protected bid areas and zones and the limit on 5 moves out of area per month
• Clarified current practice that if a custodian helps a co-worker in a nearby area who is on lunch for a small amount of time, that will not count as one of the 5 moves

We improved our union security language and the info that the Port has to provide the union, so we can represent our members better. Added climate change to our Union Labor-Management Committee’s scope.

Chapter Meeting

Tuesday, April 11, 6 p.m. – 7 p.m.
Click Here to Join by Zoom

Voting Times & Locations
April 12, 2023

• Southfield 6 a.m. – 8 a.m.
• Northfield 8:30 a.m. – 10 a.m.
• Harbor 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
• Water Street – 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
• Southfield 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.