OUR WORK MATTERS to our patients and to Multnomah County. Health Department management has proposed that if we don’t obtain medical assistant certification by November 1, 2016 that we will lose our jobs as medical assistants and be forced to bump to another job classification or be laid off entirely from County employment. Rather than threatening our livelihood and economic security, we ask that the County reach a fair settlement with our Union that uses encouragement rather than coercion as the means to accomplish the goal of certification.