MORE POWER FOR PORT WORKERS!

In early July of this year we thanked Senator Ada for introducing Substitute Bill 142 (passed and signed into law) which allows the Port GM to make wage suggestions to the board that can approve, disapprove or edit. They created a new pay scale that gave upper management huge raises and little or no raises to bottom line workers. Fortunately, the way the law was written allows workers at the Port to negotiate on their wages. Now Senator Ada has introduced Bill 223 which gives a fixed pay scale for the Port Workers, taking away their power to negotiate for higher wages. As soon as workers are given the opportunity to improve their quality of life, that power gets taken away from them. It’s not right to allow the Port’s board to raise wages only for upper management and now take away power from workers. Attend the public hearing on Bill 223 on Friday, September 4, 2009 at the Legislative Public Hearing Room 9am and let your senators know this isn’t fair for workers.