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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 22, 1995)
EDITORIAL State, workers win with pay contract Slate and union officials claimed victory Saturday when negotiators from the state and the Oregon Public Employees Union came to a tentative agreement on salary increases over the next two years. The agreement calls for a 5 pen cnt wage increase in July, followed by a 2 pen ent increase in l»HJ7. The agree ment must still be ratified bv union members and the Oregon Legislature before it becomes official. The agreement is evidence that the workers' strike was effective in prompting a favorable settlement to the salan dispute. It’s highly unlikely that the st.ite would have agreed to as large a raise if the union simply begged and pleaded for it The strike was not essary to demon strate the resolve of the union and show that they were serious about wanting .1 raise and were willing to stake their livelihoods on it. Employees who wore on strike during the work stoppage, many of whom don't earn large salaries to begin w ith, lost hundreds of dollars of wages Although the union should he given credit for stand ing up for its beliefs, the st.ite must also he given < red it for being willing to negotiate and to help settle the strike It is unfortunate that a strike was needed to convince state administrators that union workers were serious about thoir demands, but the state eventually did work to use budget forecasts to the benefit of state workers a (ommendab!" action. During the strike, it was often everyday Oregon fins who complained about the lack of state services avail able However, those Oregonians were the people responsible for passing Measure 8. which mandates that public employees contribute f> pert ent of their wages to their pensions, last November. Citizens should have known there would have been resistance from state employees who were forced to give up (i percent of their already, in some cases, meager paychcc k.s The strike was instrumental in demonstrating to Ore goninns that publh employees play a bigger part in their lives than they previously knew. Whether residents need to renew a driver's license at DMV or pay tuition at Ore gon Hall, t hanres are that the person who assists them is a publh employee The publh should know when pub lic employees are hurt, the state and its services to resi dents will suffer. The strike vividly demonstrated that fact. State employees serve Oregonians daily in more ways than most i itizons realize. If anything positive can come out of the week long work stoppage and lengthy negoti ations, it would be that citizens are aware that public employees are not nameless, faceless individuals who can be 1 ountod on to give up money whenever the state has a budget crunch. Public employees deserve to earn a competitive salary and get respect from Oregonians both in the Legislature and throughout the state. because of the settlement, both the* state and many of its workers can get back to the business of serving Ore gonians With the settlement, everyone comes out a win ner. Oregon Daily PC eon JIM tOGCMI OMCON4HOJ T?'*? />.#••> i pifl‘H.%tS9d M. Ki, XT • -..jh f • lay sJ^rfvj \Ct*CO* yoo* a»xl Tudiwlay and tburtday dw**rtg tumm«r by th« Ongon t>*ty tm«rM Pybu»h«nQ Co . W"*C al lh| Unrwp»jrfy of (> ttyor* t ugorve, 0»«ycw* *h® l ”-f .i-j ■•\teptrfKktr-fif Of th* Urvv<w*»1y *4h o*t*c<Mk at $^ta 300 O* fh* l 'V Mp-V- --Ji! 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MoRf £v/PEMCE THAT GLoBAl. wARWtib r*Ay Already 8£ uKioek wav. frankly r DON'T SEE HOW /r concerns AAE ———^ IF EVEN 107, OF 7WE A/vjrARCT/C /CE A]£lts^ SEA LEVELS could SfSE Z2-30 FEET l/Eu Don't- Expect M£ TOOO AMVm/NG ABoi^r it. » ‘ *9, Mfy| mfc r oh pihe ^ v set /s Ported our you ene£6V conjugation PEOPLE HAPPV NOW? /V£ DOK rt,QT WW/.N v OOiS IvArtJf. GO SACK OO-v'V > ■ COMMENTARY Strike peaceful, legal form of protest Chns B?<uly and Matt Kertes? ow that the Oregon I’ub lit Employee's Union X s| (OPKt ! strike ha-- ended, for the time l>eing, we in the campus community have an opportunity to take --1011 of what we can learn from the workers' action Sentiment toward the workers' actions remains in large part shaped by apathy and misinformation Many are left asking. What was this all for?" When the strike began, the University administration sent memos to professors and Gradu ate Tea< hmg f ellows to notify them of their obligation to hold i lasses us usual and to cross picket lines, stating that the strike was not against the Uni versity The University took care to appear like it yvas functioning normally and thus ignored the valuable yvork done by its work ers The effect was to create an atmosphere antagonistic um ard the strikers In reality, the University, an agent of the state, should have some interest in the well-being of its workers So why did no memoranda go out in support of the yvorkers, encouraging profes sors to take tune to explain or even discuss why the workers were, indeed, forced to go on strike? For yvhatever reason, any approval remained tu».it Why did no administrators hnye the wherewithal to thank the yvork ers publicly for their services? One result of the Im k of administrative support for its own yvorkers is that students missed the opportunity to learn about labor action and the OPEU strike tn particular A strike is meant to lie a nonviolent yvith holding of labor to make man agement wake up to reality and see hosv net essary a motivated workforce is to its operation. Workers do not want to destroy their employment; striking is merely a yvay to avoid being tak en advantage of. A picket line is both a protest demonstration for worker rights and a way to guard against replacement workers (scabs) from betraying a legally-sanc tioned boycott of work If replacement workers can cross pu ket lines and take the jobs of pit keters. workers here in the United States might just 11s well dissolve their unions and sub mit to the desires and demands of management. Unfortunately, in a profit-dri ven soi iety. striking or other wise interrupting production in the name of people's rights can be portrayed ns aggressive The tjnrmld fell into the trap when it ran the headline "Of’hl strike comes to a peaceful end" {Off/-.'. M;ii IS) Historical ly, through hired thugs or provo cation, management has been the instigator of labor violence. Administrations, in this case, the State of Oregon, benefit by making workers look like the bullies when they are victims So we must ask why the work ers went on strike and why, if anyone is upset about loss of services, they are not the ones to focus anger toward Two years ago, Oregon state workers (Of’EU is the union for this group), agreed to delay wage increases until the state had a budget surplus because their state was in financial trouble, now they fo< •• n ft percent pav i ut due to last year's passage of Measure H This means that as of July 1. state workers’ take-home pay will revert to 19*11 levels, while the cost of living has gone up about 9 percent each year Oregon now has a budget sur plus of $550 million However, while Measure 5 from 1990 (a major cause of the financial trouble) was a windfall for cor porations in this state, at least S150 million of the state's bud get surplus appears to be headed toward more breaks for corpora tions and the state workers are forgotten At tiiis stage of the struggle (which, by the way, is not just Ol’KU's struggle but part of a resistance to legislative attacks on labor, including an Oregon bill that would lower the mini mum wage in Oregon by -10 cents per hour), workers may feel demoralized The media have paid more attention to Ol’KC members' dwindling finances than to the fundamen tal unfairness of the state which lias caused it In a < ountry con sidered the bastion of world cap italism and Business f irst', it is not hard to understand why so many people are ignorant of labor organization or its impor tance The OPEU workers bravely took the initiative in going on strike We must follow their lead by edmating ourselves and oth ers about the struggle li we all know the facts, we can act and we all can benefit. Chris Hradv is a history major and Matt Krrtrsr is an English major at the l 'nnrrsiti ■ LETTERS & COMMENTARY POLICY The Oregon Daily Emerald welcomes letters and common taries from the public concerning topics of interest to the Uni versity community. Letters to the editor must he limited to no more than 250 words, legible, signed and the identification of tin; writer must l>e verified when the letter ts submitted. Commentaries should be between 600 and MOO words, legi ble, signed and the identification of the writer must lie verified when the commentary is submitted. The Emerald reserves the right to edit any letter for length or style.
