American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Oregon Council
75 has reached a tentative agreement on behalf of some 4,000 employees
at the State of Oregon.
The two-year agreement includes a 3 percent cost-of-living adjustment
retroactive to July 1 and a 3.2 percent COLA on Nov. 1, 2008.
State employees will continue to receive fully-paid health insurance
for the life of the contract.
Other improvements include:
• Selective salary adjustments for 16 job classifications, affecting
some 200 workers.
• Shift differential of at least 75 cents per hour for shifts
occurring between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
• Contracting out language that sets up a situation where those
who are potentially at risk of being contracted out will have the
opportunity to “bid in” on the work, plus prior notification
of any potential contracting out decisions.
• Improved union-leave language that will make it easier for
union officers to get time off for union business.
“This is a good settlement,” said Oregon AFSCME Executive
Director Ken Allen, the union’s chief negotiator. “Fully-paid
health insurance is a huge deal for us. We are the last state in the
U.S. that pays 100 percent of the health care costs for its state
employees, so it is no small feat to keep that for another contract.”
Oregon Department of Corrections employees represented by AFSCME are
not covered under this agreement. Separate negotiations are continuing
for both Security and Security Plus units.
Earlier this year the State of Oregon reached a similar agreement
with Service Employees Local 503. That union represents about 18,000
state employees.
