Oregon State Workers Up Against The Wall

SEIU Local 503, the lead state union now involved in union contract negotiations with the state, hoped for an early contract settlement in its main state and higher ed units. Perhaps as many as 30,000 people--state workers--are covered by these contracts. The state put an initial concessionary contract offer on the table early on, which the union might have been willing to accept, but later withdrew this offer. Since that time the state and national economies have weakened, state workers in Washington and California have faced especially hard battles, counties and cities across Oregon have begun serious budget and job cuts and state union contract negotiations here in Oregon have gone from bad to worse.

The Governor announced last week that he is rolling back managers' raises, which is always a sore point for union-covered state workers. The union's proposals up to this point have been step-up-to-the-plate, good-faith sacrifices offered with the understanding that the state is economically slammed and that some lost ground might be made up later. The Governor's response has been to demand even deeper and
more unreasonable cuts.

The state's most recent counterproposal amounts to a 4.6% annual pay cut for state workers. That proposal includes:

*26 furlough days for all state workers:

*No holiday pay on 15 currently-paid holidays

*11 furlough days on prescribed days, including two this biennium

*Elimination of the 10th salary step or grade. This will especially anger many union members who worked hard to achieve this over the years and who depend on added steps and cost-of-living raises.

*A full freeze on salary steps or grades

This proposal puts all economic terms in the main state worker union contract, including employer-paid health care, in jeopardy with a possible contract re-opener that could be initiated by either party at some point in the future. It makes an early settlement in contract negotiations unlikely.

The SEIU bargaining team is understandably outraged and is left demanding that the state share with the workers whatever sacrifices need to be made. The Governor's demands and his proposed budget instead seeks to close the state deficits projected in the next biennium on the backs of state workers and Oregon's most vulnerable people by also cutting social services and education spending. Deep cuts have already been made and it should not be utopian or unrealistic to demand that these cuts be restored. State workers will do a statewide protest action this Thursday in worksites.

The next SEIU-state bargaining session is scheduled for Monday, March 9 and Tuesday, March 10.

The coming March 15 antiwar rally in Salem should feature a strong message to the state: cutting social services, education funding and state worker salaries and benefits is unacceptable when money is being spent on wars and prisons. That message should be repeated at the May 1 rally also scheduled for Salem. Finally, AFSCME and SEIU should have a common program and a common approach at the basic worksite level, regardless of differences and structures.