A Message from the CAT Board on Union Negotiations
Dear CAT Members for CLU,
The CAT Board and CAT Management appreciate your letter and other efforts to connect with us regarding CAT Staff. Please know that we value staff and want to offer great benefits and working conditions. We acknowledge that communication with our fellow members, CAT Staff, and the public could have been better. As we said at the last CAT Board meeting, we are committed to doing better to communicate with members. We see this letter as a first step in fulfilling that commitment. As you said, this is a critical time for tenants in Oregon, so our highest priority is to manage CAT in a way that makes us a stronger and more effective team. We are learning and asking the Union and community for opportunities to engage from a place of inquiry and active listening.
To address your concerns and clarify our position, the CAT Board has been minimally involved in the CAT Labor Negotiation process. They selected the attorney and get regular updates. In addition, most of the current Board of Directors is newly elected and learning our role in the labor negotiation process. Because the Board is the direct supervisor of the Executive Director, we hope that in this role we can improve communication between the community, Union Staff, and Management.
Due to the restrictions created by the COVID pandemic, staff asked for more communication. In response, the CAT Board instituted several new communication strategies: a designated Staff-to-Board Liaison, an anonymous reporting portal, board meeting invites with monthly reminders, and meeting agendas. The CAT Board will extend the same opportunities to CAT members.
Some of the concerns listed in your letter have not been brought to the Board by Union staff. We are glad to hear them now. For this reply, we have asked the CAT Management to offer context where appropriate, to answer your specific questions and to let you know what steps management is taking. In some cases, we do not know the answer: Union staff may have shared concerns with you or the public that were not explained to management or the Board. For that reason, we ask the public to be very specific about concerns so that we can address them. In addition, we would like to enhance communication with our members to clear up any misunderstanding about Management actions that have appeared to be inappropriate or harmful to staff and the Union.
To foster communication between members, the board and staff we support your suggested next steps:
A member meeting in June 2021
Sharing of information
Reinvigoration and participation in the Strategic Plan
Finding more avenues for members to speak to each other
Empowering member leadership and participation in the CAT Board and other official functions of CAT
Additionally, CAT will post all proposed contract language on the CAT website, so the negotiating process is transparent and available to the public. We would also like to facilitate a dialogue about CAT’s chosen attorney so that we understand each other before agreeing to changes. The CAT Board has stood by the decision of the majority Black leadership of the CAT Executive Committee. We shared our reasoning and evidence with CLU that Barran Liebman was not hired to Union bust. We assumed that CLU understood our reasoning because they have not raised the issue with us again. We will consider a new attorney if we understand the specific reasoning behind your request to change attorneys. Is there any attorney that can provide employer-side labor advice that would be acceptable to membership? If so, please offer a suggestion. The CAT Board chose a firm that works with CWA on other contracts and has represented Union management. It is typical and expected for an organization to have access to legal advice when making contracts and negotiating with unions.
Current Communication Efforts
Several eblasts have been sent to members to update members about negotiations
Invitations to members to apply for jobs
Invitations to members to join hiring committee panels
Requests to staff to introduce new staff to members.
New measures for staff members to access Board members and meetings (detailed above).
We recognize that with growth comes new expectations from staff, members, and the community and a need to foster dialogue. To support staff:
We are requesting extended bargaining times to foster deeper conversations.
We have instituted several trainings and assessments regarding the impacts of racism on the people of the African Diaspora in the workplace.
We offer staff a $2,000 per year stipend in career development to be used for any courses or training that will enhance their professional and job development.
We pay 100% of medical and dental health care premiums for all employees, their spouses/domestic partners and children; this includes mental health counseling, prescriptions, alternative care (acupuncture, naturopathy and chiropractic services. These health care plans have low deductibles and low co-pays.
We recognize the stressors of the pandemic. In response, multiple staff have been granted long leaves of absence as much as a month or more. Monthly paid time for self-care and informal work life balancing of schedules. In addition, CAT added an Employee Assistance program in may 2020 to enhance staff access to mental health, financial, grief and other counseling services. We also have given a $250 stipend for self-care, that can be used in any way to support their emotional and physical health.
We will continue to reassure staff that layoffs are not likely and will continue to give periodic finance updates; that being said, we are facing some challenges due to the nonrenewal of the OHCS grant of $1.2 million for Fiscal Year 21-22. We have hired a Development Manager and consultants to stabilize our revenue streams from year-to-year. These individuals are working on donor development, applying for more private and government grants, and pursuing other fundraising activities.
We continue to rely on a practice of using progressive improvement plans to address performance issues.
We offer CAT staff flexible work weeks when possible.
We have a contract with Upward Technology, a professional software support company, to give our staff 24-hour, industry standard technical support. UT is working to streamline and enhance our IT systems, as well as enhancing security against hackers and computer viruses.
We are working to address previous attempts by what we assume are hate groups to gain access to staff email accounts and technology with security measures. These measures in no way monitor staff usage, but serve to protect their online assets.
We continue to have pride in our diverse staff and the Union process of the staff and community mutually selecting our new co-workers. We will commit to answering community concerns about contract topics.
Approximately 26 articles were introduced in batches over an eight month timeline. We meet once or twice per month for two hours. In that time, CAT and CLU have agreed to 6 articles.
Going forward, CAT will pay all CLU Bargaining Committee members for any time spent in Bargaining.
We are making room for all staff and community members to participate in all bargaining sessions.
We are committed to maintaining a safe place for dialogue at the table, workplace, and community and we will encourage our partners to do the same.
We have offered to pay for labor mediation services.
We have affirmed that CAT does not and will not conduct criminal or credit screening.
We have affirmed that CAT does not and will not use eVerify. CAT agrees that we want CAT to be a place of sanctuary and we are actively working toward that goal.
At no time has CAT entirely refused any terms presented in negotiations. It is understood by both parties that we are negotiating. We have put aside some discussions until later, for example, the ground rules, and we recognize that the delay has damaged the tone of the meetings.
CAT takes pride in using the hiring practices created with staff to hire internally for growth positions, promote community opportunities for employment, and staff involvement in choosing new team members. For example, the Organizing Team chose their current Director.
We are an equal opportunity employer and as you would expect we have a diverse staff that draws on their talent and experience from all over the United States and the world.
CAT Management has followed the Policies and Procedures created by CAT staff and members and values a collective process. The Union has a particular process to achieve the same goal of collective decision making and we are learning those guidelines.
Concern about Governance:
The CAT Board followed the guidelines of the organization Bylaws as written by our members. The CAT Board welcomes discussion about governance.
The CAT Board needs support of staff and members:
Like CLU, and our CAT members, we value the experience of our leaders, and we need leadership based on the lived experience of being a tenant or a person of color in Oregon. CAT has been fortunate to have this kind of leadership in its Board and management. In recent months, CAT Board members have expressed feeling unsupported by staff and the community in spite of their efforts to engage and create avenues of communication. People of the African Diaspora often experience a questioning of their leadership. Two of the Black leaders, that we have admired and relied on for years, have resigned. Another Board member was removed by the Board “without cause.” We cannot speak for them, but we encourage membership and staff to reach out to them with the care and support we hope for all CAT volunteers.
The CAT Board continues to support CAT staff unconditionally and we ask staff and members for more care of each other. We are all volunteers. It is disheartening to hear that our staff were threatened during negotiations, that CAT Board members report being doxed, that new staff feel unwelcomed and frightened, and current staff feel unappreciated or bullied- and staff and Board Members of color have reported concerns of institutional racism that is all too common in organizations including ours. In response, CAT will undergo an investigation into these concerns about racism and safety. Additionally, you and other members of the public have brought serious concerns that as volunteers we are struggling to handle confidentially, and with prudence and accountability for the organization and those who may be involved. We ask that all parties refrain from spreading intentionally false information and are committed to inquiry, understanding and dialogue. We are hoping this letter can serve as the beginning of that dialogue.
Thank you,
Community Alliance of Tenants Board of Directors
Claire Foster
Delfina Andrade
Matt Foulsham
Alex Rhoades
Steve Weiss