Contacts:      

Edward Hershey (SEIU PR) 503-540-8428 [o] 971-322-7421 [c]
Don Loving (AFSCME PR) 503-370-2522 Ext. 245 [o] 503-887-2713 [c]
Kermit Meling (SEIU bargaining chair) 503-454-8068         
Steve Sander (AFSCME bargaining team) 503-872-5194

After eight months of negotiations, members of the state’s two largest public employee unions have reached a tentative agreement with the State on new two-year contracts through June 30, 2011.  

“From the start of bargaining,” said Kermit Meling, a motor carrier enforcement officer at ODOT who chairs SEIU Local 503’s bargaining team, “we have sought to keep state workers on the job serving Oregonians and to ensure that we do not shoulder more than our fair share of the burden necessary to see the State through the worst economic crisis of our lifetime. We feel that this agreement meets those goals.”

"State employees understand the budget situation and we are willing to do our part to help our state through this difficult time,” said Steve Sander, a training analyst and program coordinator at OLCC who is vice president of AFSCME Local 2505. “I believe this is a reasonable contract that includes appropriate 'shared sacrifices' on our part. State employees are not some faceless group. We are friends, neighbors and Oregon taxpayers, too. We're here to help the state pull through this.”

Here are some highlights of the agreement that, if ratified, would cover about 18,500 state workers represented by SEIU and 3,000 by AFSCME.

•      State workers will take 10, 12, or 14 unpaid furlough days over the next two years depending on their rates of pay. While some agencies will implement furlough days on a “floating” basis, most will close entirely on designated days.

•     State workers will sacrifice one of the two longevity increments that are a regular part of the compensation package for state employees in their first decade of service.  Regular annual increments will resume in the second year of the contract. There will be no cost of living raises during the life of the agreement.

•     The State will pay up to 5% in each year for premium increases to maintain existing health insurance coverage.  

Members of each union negotiated new contract terms on a number of non-economic issues.
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