SEIU reaches tentative two-year
agreement with State of Oregon
SALEM — Service Employee In-
ternational Union Local 503 has
reached a tentative agreement with the
State of Oregon on a contract covering
some 18,000 employees statewide for
the 2007-09 biennium.
Contract provisions call for a 3
percent cost-of-living increase for full-
time employees effective July 1, 2007,
with a minimum raise of $80 per
month to help the state’s lowest-paid
workers. Employees will get a 3.2 per-
cent cost-of-living increase, effective
Nov. 1, 2008, with a minimum raise of
$85 per month.
Full-time public employees will
continue to receive employer-paid
health care insurance for 2008. In
2009 the state will pay for health in-
surance, with a cap on increases set at
12 percent. If the increase in premi-
ums is more than 12 percent, employ-
ees will be able to use the Public Em-
ployee Benefit Board reserves to pay
for the excess so employees will have
no out-of-pocket costs.
“We’ve fought hard in the Legisla-
ture to make quality health care af-
fordable and accessible for all Orego-
nians,” said Cory McIntosh, chair of
SEIU’s bargaining team. “This agree-
ment shows what can happen when
people work together to address the
health care crisis.”
Union officials said the 6.2 percent
in raises over two years is higher than
the projected inflation rate and is the
highest COLA workers have received
in over a decade.
The salary scale will be restruc-
tured in the second year of the con-
tract to boost the pay of the lowest
paid workers. Effective Nov. 1, 2008,
the lowest paid full-time state worker
will earn $1,847 per month, up from
the current $1,411.
SEIU’s bargaining team is unani-
mously recommending ratification of
the agreement. Local 503 will hold a
bargaining conference July 28, where
bargaining delegates will vote to send
the agreement to the full membership.
The state remains in negotiations
with the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employ-
ees (AFSCME), and other labor
unions.
Bakers Local 114 cake decorator
awarded a U.S. patent
Mary Stugelmeyer, a 16-year member of Bakers Local 114, and a cake
decorator at the Albertsons store in Keizer, was awarded a U.S. patent for
her unique design of an automatically-timed locking pill box with an alarm.
The pillbox has been in the works for about 16 years. The idea came to
her when a friend kept forgetting to take her medication. The pillbox, she
says, will help people remember when they should take their medication.
Stugelmeyer applied for the patent last year. It was awarded on April 27,
2007, protecting her design for 14 years.
Stugelmeyer is now seeking advice on how to get her pillbox manu-
factured. She wants it made in the USA and preferably union made. She is
seeking advice as to how to proceed.
If you can help, contact Terry Lansing, business manager of Local 114,
and he will forward the information to Stugelmeyer. Lansing can be e-
mailed at terry@bctgm114.org.
AFL-CIO’s Trumka will
keynote WSLC
convention in August
SEATTLE — National AFL-CIO
Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka is
scheduled to deliver the keynote ad-
dress at the 2007 Convention of the
Washington State Labor Council,
which begins Thursday, Aug. 16, at 9
Q
a.m. at the SeaTac DoubleTree Hotel
near the airport. Convention business is
expected to be completed by noon Sat-
urday, Aug. 18.
Under the theme “50 Years of Soli-
darity,” the Council will celebrate the
50th anniversary of its formation with
the 1957 merger of the Washington
Federation of Labor and the Washing-
ton Congress of Industrial Organiza-
tions Council.
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PAGE 8
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
JULY 20, 2007