Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us July 8, 2005 Oregon TODAY State, SEIU reach tentative deal SALEM — Negotiators for the state and the largest state-workers union have reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract that will grant pay raises ranging from 8.75 percent to 18.25 percent over the life on the deal. The state also agreed to keep paying workers’ health-insurance premiums. “We got, I would say, 98 percent of everything that members wanted,” said Cory McIntosh, a bargaining team member for Local 503 of Service Employees International Union. McIntosh, a computer support worker for the Department of Motor Vehicles, predicted that SEIU members will ratify the contract. The labor contract covers 18,600 SEIU members working for the state, plus 3,800 workers at the Oregon University System. Although the economic portion of the contract is in place, OUS workers continue to negotiate non-economic elements with the state, such as the grievance procedure and how work schedules are created. “Remember we still haven not settled,” Sophia Smolen, the president of SEIU local 084 and the manager of the Southern Oregon University art department, wrote in a Thursday e-mail to SOU union workers. “This is no time for relaxing. There are still big things on the table.” The existing SEIU contract, which included a two-year wage freeze, expired June 30. Department of Administrative Services and OUS workers have separate employers but bargained together to come to an agreement on pay raises, health care costs and selective salaries increases. A breakthrough in the marathon negotiations came at 9 p.m. Wednesday, when the state issued a final offer that included a new 4.75 percent step or merit raise to workers who forfeited step raises during the 2003-05 wage freeze. The state was able to sweeten its offer because of lower-than-expected health-care costs. Recent bids from health insurers indicate that costs will rise only 6 percent in the coming year, far less than expected, said Sue Wilson, who oversees human resources for the DAS. The top goal of unions was to retain the state’s health-insurance package. Oregon is one of the few states where workers get their monthly premiums fully paid by their employer, said Ken Allen, executive director of Council 75 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. Holly Armstrong, a spokeswoman for Gov. Ted Kulongoski, said the governor “is happy that we came to an agreement and it’s within the guidelines of what we laid out in the budget.” — Staff and wire reports DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams