- Denis C. Theriault
The District Council of Trade Unions, which represents some 1,700 city employees in seven different unions, had called the gathered just days after threatening to strike over a contract impasse, part of a very visible bid to put pressure on officials in time for talks to restart later this week.
The union is pushing back against a city plan to change the way overtime is allocated, with the two sides also arguing over the size of wage increases in future years and the way the city farms out work to non-city employees.
Not long after 5 pm, they filled the plaza on 4th Street just below the Portland City Council chambers—where council members and Multnomah County commissioners were swearing in the city's youth commissioners—and led a series of chants in hopes of reaching the ears of the politicians upstairs.
It was rather dramatic. Boos were showered, at one point, on the city's human resources czar, Yvonne Deckard. But to listen to Ken Allen, executive director for the DCTU's largest union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, you almost had to wonder if it was over the top.
Read on to find out why, and also to see what the city had to say in response.