Union pleads case as EWU starts up

Freshman move-in day at Eastern Washington University took place Friday with a union conflict in the background.

The union representing classified staff attempted to add pressure to upcoming negotiations with the university by holding a campus protest as freshmen moved into residence halls. Protests are planned throughout the weekend.

“We want the parents of students here to understand what is going on here,” said Mike Nelson, union president.

The union has been in negotiations with EWU since February and now both sides face a state-imposed deadline to finalize a contract by Oct. 1. Still on the table are wage issues and the touchy subject of outsourcing work, which the union perceives as a threat.

During a downpour, while cars gummed up parking lots near the dorms, about 200 campus employees, from custodians to gardeners to maintenance folks, chanted union slogans under a red and white tent.

School officials also gathered Friday on campus for their board of trustees meeting, where EWU President Stephen Jordan updated the trustees on school activities.

One worker at the protest pointed out that the staff of custodians cleans Jordan’s on-campus home and maintains his yard.

“We need some thorns in Jordan’s rose garden,” said one worker.

Talks begin again today. Rain or shine, workers plan to protest at today’s ice cream social and football game.

During the rally, Nelson pointed out how campus enrollment has risen, and more buildings must be maintained, but classified salaries have not gone up in four years. In fact, about 14 classified staff people were laid off when budget shortfalls led to dissolving more than 30 positions over the summer, Nelson said.

Faculty union president Tony Flinn offered encouragement at the rally.

“Without you everything dissolves like acid eating away at the base,” Flinn said.

Kandys Dygert, an EWU employee who’s on the negotiating team, said, “We made some progress at keeping what we had.”

What remains on the table is the threat of contracting out work to independent employees who can’t join the union, Dygert said. Dygert wouldn’t give details on the negotiations for higher pay.

At the rally, workers handed out sheets that listed annual salaries of top EWU administrators, which have gone up an average of 17 percent since 2001. The figures were generated from union requests for public information, Dygert said.

“I’ll tell you what, we’re not asking for that much,” Dygert said.

EWU spokeswoman Barb Richey said both sides were making progress in the negotiations.

Richey said she couldn’t be sure where the union obtained their numbers, but pointed out that EWU administrators are still paid below national salary averages in relation to peer institutions.

Richey expects the negotiating teams will come to an agreement before the Oct. 1 deadline.

In a news release, the union pointed out that members could vote for a strike if the deadline is not met.

“We hope it doesn’t come to that,” Richey said.

Chuck Thurston, from Rainier, Wash., sat down while his wife obtained a student cash card for their daughter, a freshman. As he did 30 years ago, his daughter chose to attend EWU. They had just walked passed the union rally, which caught their attention, although the rain drove them inside quickly.

“That’s their right to do that,” said Thurston, who paused to read a union sign. “That’s how the real world works.”