State workers picket over wages
Tuesday, December 7, 2004 7:24 AM PST
By Venice Buhain
Printable version
E-mail this articleST. HELENS, Ore. --- Oregon state employees, including child caseworkers and Department of Transportation employees, picketed Monday morning in front of the local state offices in St. Helens, Ore., to mark the first day of their union's contract negotiations with the state.
Oregon Department of Transportation employee Randy Davis, who lives and works in Clatskanie, said the workers are hoping for increases in pay and health insurance, which is almost covered entirely by the state now. He said the workers took a pay freeze in the past biennium, because of a tight state budget.
"I think it's going to be one of our biggest issues," Davis said.
The two-year contract expires in June.
In a 2005-07 budget proposed by Gov. Ted Kulongoski last week, $130 million was set aside for 2 percent employee pay increases and an increase in the workers' health insurance costs over the next two years, according to union figures. The state faces cutbacks in his proposed $11.9 billion budget.
The negotiations between the Service Employees International Union, Local 503 and the state began Monday in Salem. The union represents about 17,000 state workers. About 80 of them work in Columbia County.
Columbia County state workers include those at the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Department of Forestry, Oregon State University extension, Department of Human Services and the Water Services.
Davis said many of the state's workers are on the low-end of the pay scale, after a rush of retirements the past couple of years to beat a revamp of the state retirement system.
Some part-time workers on the low-end of the pay scale qualify for food stamps, said union representative Siobhan Martin.
DHS worker David Matz, who led about a dozen workers in the chanting and the marching on Highway 30, said the St. Helens demonstration was part of a statewide strategy. Informational picketing and other actions were scheduled throughout the state Monday.
"We're trying to put people on notice," Matz said. "We are willing to walk in June if we need to."
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