Oregon Makes Tentative Deal With Workers Contract Agreement Gives 5 Percent Raise To Employees’ Union

Negotiators announced a tentative contract agreement Saturday between the state and its largest employees’ union.

The pact with the Oregon Public Employees Union calls for a 5 percent wage increase July 1 for almost all state workers.

The increase will be followed by a two percent wage boost on May 1, 1997.

The only exception would be new employees, who instead will move to the next step on the salary scale in half the usual time.

The announcement followed a 26-hour bargaining session that began Friday with a mediator. Negotiators reached a settlement about noon Saturday.

“This to us is such an important statement about worker respect,” said Alice Dale, OPEU executive director. “It’s not because of fancy maneuvering at the bargaining table or the generosity of the state.”

“There was a very powerful statement of what workers can do when they stand together,” Dale told a cheering throng of workers who gathered at the state fairgrounds for the announcement.

State spokesman Mark Fryburg said the costs of the agreement can be met by the governor’s budget.

“We finally worked that common ground,” Fryburg said. “A situation like this is a winwin.”

“We can’t help but feel relieved and both very happy that both sides are getting what they need,” he said.

The union membership must vote on the tentative agreement, a process union officials said would take at least three weeks.

The OPEU, which represents more than 17,000 state workers, ended a seven-day walkout one week ago.

At that time, the state offered a 3 percent increase July 1 with another 3 percent in November 1996, with an additional $20 monthly contribution to the employees’ flexible benefit plans.

The union wanted a pay increase large enough to offset the 6 percent of workers’ salaries they must pay into their pensions beginning July 1.

About 12,000 employees went on strike. The numbers began slipping, however, as the week wore on. About 10,000 employees remained away from work toward the end of walkout.

The strike disrupted such services as motor vehicles and welfare offices.