AEE Workshop Brown Bag

AEE Members –

Over the last 8 months or so, we have been faced with two layoff scares, funding shortfalls, are overworked and understaffed. We dodged a proverbial bullet in early March when the legislature robbed Peter to pay Paul, there will be a vote on the gas tax increase in May (while gas prices are quickly approaching $5.00+ per gallon), and though we are all hopeful that ODOT Leadership, the Governor’s Office, and the Legislature manifest a permanent funding solution – Agency staff will continue to be in the dark. We have all seen more Town Halls, funding reduction meetings, and mass emails from leadership (and AEE) than anyone could have imagined. Or ever wanted.

At many of those meetings and Brown bags, your AEE Board has put out the call asking for support. We have vacant positions that need to be filled (R4, ODOT HQ, and OPRD Directors, and several Assistant Director positions) but also have an even broader need of “Key Members” that assist with in-person meet and greets and information sharing, and volunteers for our several committees. We have had a few people reach out and volunteer to help over the last several months. We couldn’t be happier to work with people that step up to support AEE, and in turn, support (and even fight for) ODOT, OPRD, and ODF staff. This need for support is also true for the extremely lean AEE PAC, who work on non-partisan legislative issues and that affect ODOT, OPRD, and ODF employees (think funding bills, bills affecting benefits, legislative communications, attending legislator town halls, etc.).  

AEE is an all-volunteer Association. We keep our dues low (much lower than other unions) and achieve that with a long history of Agency staff volunteering to do the work of the Association – from biennial contract bargaining, class studies, grievance support (like boot reimbursements), or to serve as guardrails to HR during disciplinary/investigatory meetings. We say it often – and the reason for that is, we take it seriously and need the help of Agency employees to continue this work into the future. AEE is you – we are not structured anything like the larger unions. We serve and support each other for the greater good of the membership. We do not ask for anything that the AEE Board is not already doing in support of all of us.

“The Union (Association in our case) is not a service you receive; it is something you build with your coworkers.”

To that end – I will start holding quarterly “workshops” (for lack of a better term). The main purpose of these workshops is to serve as a “no obligation” time to hop onto a lunch time Teams call and learn more about what we need help with and ask any questions you may have. We can talk roles and responsibilities, differences between Assist. Directors and Directors, duties, time commitments, help needed on committees, PAC initiatives and needs, etc. I can also address questions around specific tasks (investigatory meetings, Labor Management Committee Meetings, bargaining, grievances, AEE Committees, etc.).  

Though I was once the Director at TLC, I will try and have at least one other Director present and one member of the PAC at each of these calls.

This meeting is open to any active member – whether they are wanting to help now, or maybe have been thinking about it and have some questions. We are not signing anyone up for anything at these meetings. We are hoping that if you can see what may be coming over the next few years and want to play a more active role in helping and supporting yourself and your coworkers, *please* keep an eye out for the Teams invites.  The first meeting will be held April 7, from 12-1pm. Please use the link here to join.

In Solidarity,

Shawn Rapp

AEE First Vice President