DAS Alert from June 17th

This week there were several positive developments in DAS bargaining, though the central obstacle to a contract settlement—the State’s continued insistence that state workers shoulder more than our fair share of the sacrifice necessary to address the budget crisis—remains unresolved.

Following two more days of mediation in the aftermath of the State’s withdrawal of its premature impasse declaration, we have achieved two significant goals:

• State negotiators have withdrawn their demand for pay cuts in lieu of furlough days for some workers, including most in 24/7 institutions, and motor carrier enforcement officers in ODOT. This was the proposal that provoked our filing an Unfair Labor Practice charge with the State Employment Relations Board, contending that the State had breached the Ground Rules by issuing a new demand after the deadline. We can now say confidently that there will be no actual reduction in any member’s pay rate during the next two years, which is a significant victory.

• We signed off on a letter of agreement extending recall rights for employees who are on layoff now or who will be laid off during the life of the next two-year contract from two to three years. We hope and pray that anyone laid off will be back sooner than later, but given the current economic climate this represents a new and important protection for members already in considerable distress.

Three of our four Coalitions — Human Services, ODOT and Specials — have also successfully concluded bargaining (ODOT at 3 a.m. Tuesday morning). The fourth, Institutions, will be back at it tonight.

In coalition bargaining, members have gained a number of advances in areas like scheduling, reimbursement and union rights and fought back a number of management-sponsored take-away proposals. Details outlining changes in these agreements will be on the Coalition Bargaining Updates pages:

DHS: http://www.seiu503.org/state/DHS/default.aspx
ODOT: http://www.seiu503.org/state/odot/default.aspx
Specials: http://www.seiu503.org/state/Specials/default.aspx
Institutions: http://www.seiu503.org/state/Institutions/default.aspx

As most of you probably know, our success in reversing the impasse declaration and progress at the table comes after some promising news from the Legislature, which continues to hammer out details of the 2009-11 budget following crucial passage of about $770 in new revenue from wealthy Oregonians and profitable large corporations.

This has been a cornerstone of our lobbying efforts. It means that the final budget will likely provide the fiscal parameters to support a compromise settlement, but the fight will not be over when the legislature adjourns!

We expect the State will declare impasse again at the earliest possible moment—probably in late June, thus returning to bargaining by brinkmanship — restarting the clock on the Governor’s nuclear option of implementation. We will continue to fight for a negotiated settlement that protects our steps and minimizes the number of furlough days.

Members and supporters who turned out to our march and rally June 7 made a big difference. Now we need to refine and ramp up our message. Our contract ends June 30 and we will be organizing worksite actions all across the state that day.

We return to mediation Monday. Watch for details of our June 30th actions.