Wages Up in Pendleton

City Workers Win a New 3-Year Contract

Workers represented by SEIU Local 503 have successfully negotiated a new 3-year contract with the City of Pendleton that increases salaries across the board and adds new protections.

The contract, which has been ratified, calls for $38 a month raises retroactive to July 1, another $38 in January, a 2% cost-of-living adjustment 
on January 1, 2010 and a 2.5% COLA July 1, 2011.

The SEIU 503 bargaining committee and officers – Mark Asheley, Adrian Sutor, Jutta Haliewicz and Kathy Ward -- also maintained paid health insurance for the life of the contract with the caveat that workers will share the cost of any increase in coverage for dependents in the final year of the contract.

Other gains included the establishment of a 25-cent-per-hour shift differential
, the posting of open positions and a process to allow hardship donations of time for members in need. Local 503 organizer Bruce Nobles worked with the Pendleton team during bargaining.