Unanimous Support for DAS Contract

Bargaining Delegates Recommend Ratification

Elected SEIU 503 bargaining delegates voted unanimously August 15 to support a tentative agreement covering more than 18,000 DAS employees and providing health insurance coverage to more than 4,000 classified OUS workers.

Now the agreement goes to all members covered under the agreement. Ballots will be mailed to represented workers this week. Only members vote, but those who have not yet joined can do so and become eligible immediately. Delegates also pledged support for OUS classified workers who bargain separately with the Chancellor and the Board of Higher Education on most issues and are facing draconian cuts that the Chancellor and the board are not demanding of managers or other employees.

After eight months of negotiations, the SEIU 503 DAS Bargaining Team has reached a tentative agreement with the State on a new two-year contract 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.”

Here are some highlights of the agreement as outlined by the team:

• We protected fully paid family medical coverage. The State will pay for premium cost increases of up to 5% in each year. Increases between 5% and 10% will be paid partly by the State and partly from PEBB reserve funds. The state subsidy for part-time employees' health insurance will increase so that part-timers' premium costs do not rise.



• There will be a one-year step freeze from 9/1/09 through 8/31/10. Employees who receive a step in July or August 2009 will have that step "rolled back" on 9/1/09 and then restored on 9/1/10 (with no money to be repaid). Thus all bargaining unit members will get one step at some point during the life of the contract.

• There will be no cost of living adjustments during the contract.



• Workers will take 10, 12, or 14 furlough days over the next two years. These days will mean real sacrifice, both for workers and for the Oregonians who rely on our services, but the impact will be much less than the 24 days the State had proposed, and less than employees of many other states have taken. While some agencies will implement furlough days on a "floating" basis, in most agencies offices will be closed on the designated furlough dates. Furlough days will be pro-rated for part-time and seasonal employees and will count as time worked for accruals and insurance.

• A number of non-economic changes will benefit members, including a classification study covering support staff and health care positions that must be finished in time to bargain salary rates in 2011 and an extra year of recall rights for laid-off workers.


More recent news about State and University workers
For DAS members: more details on the settlement, including frequently asked questions about steps and furlough days.
For OUS members: how the DAS settlement affects OUS bargaining