State, union agree to contract

OLYMPIA – Tentative agreement has been reached on a two-year contract that would provide 2 percent average pay raises for workers represented by Washington’s largest state employee union.

Under the deal announced Friday, there would also be additional raises for workers represented by the Washington Federation of State Employees in high-turnover jobs such as juvenile rehabilitation officers and an extra day off each year in 2009 and 2010.

The Office of Financial Management pegged the cost at about $85 million. The deal is subject to ratification by union members in voting through Sept. 29 and the Legislature during the session that begins in January.

Analysts with the state Senate have predicted a $2.7 billion shortfall in the next two-year budget cycle, based on similar raises.

The union represents about 33,000 state employees. To meet the deadline for ratification, the union plans to extend the deadline for voting yes or no on the contract until Sept. 29. That leaves only two days to recover, should workers oppose the tenative deal.

“State employees are looking at cost increases like everyone else, but we also had our eye on the bottom line for the state,” budget director Victor Moore said. “With recent revenue collections (down) and future collections being tight, we had to be careful with what we agreed to.”

Raises in the package likely will be extended to all nonunion state employees, Moore added.

Other unions had settled on raises of 1.6 percent next year and 1.7 percent in 2010. The federation’s tradeoff for higher raises was a delay in beginning them, Sept. 1 instead of Jan. 1 in each year, union spokesman Tim Welch said.

“Our members, they read the news, and they know we’re facing tough economic times, so to get a contract with a pay raise that’s larger than what some other unions settled for, and other items as well, I think was satisfying to them,” Welch said.

Under state law union contract talks are supposed to be concluded by Oct. 1, but Republican candidate for governor Dino Rossi has proposed negotiating during the budget deliberations in the Legislature next year, when the extent of the anticipated deficit may be more clear.

Rossi also has criticized Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire for overseeing the contract talks at the same time that unions have donated heavily to political action committees and other groups supporting her re-election campaign.