3
The State Employees' Association
E ditorial O regon S tatesman
A fter previous experience by "trial
and error” state employes have formed
an independent association of their own
and engaged an executive secretary. The
organization is composed of persons
who are in state employ. Membership
is voluntary and dues are kept at a
lavel merely to cover the expenses of
the organization.
This independent organization fol
lows efforts to organize state workers
into a union affiliated w ith the AFofL.
Failure to attract a sufficient number
of members with such an affiliation led
to the setting up of the independent
body.
Civil servants of the state are inter
ested in security of tenure (civil serv
ice) and some system of retirement an
nuities. They are concerned too about
their own compensation and the work
ing conditions in various state depart
ments.
While state employment in Oregon
has been kept on rather a high level,
with few discharges for strictly politi
cal reasons, conditions of employment
are by no means uniform. The budget
office has endeavored with some success
to establishment classifications and
salary scales; but more work needs to
be done. Oregon is getting to a point
too, when personnel except in the high
er policy-determining positions should
be engaged on the basis of competence.
This should not be done until the
war is over, but ought to come then.
State employes have as much right
to form an association of their own as
employes in private industry. As ser
vants of the state however, they have a
special responsibility in avoiding the
use of the strike weapon, and we are
confident that Oregon employes realize
that. A t the same time the state should
treat it semployes fairly, both as to
pay, security of tenure and retirement
allowances.
— Permission Oregon Statesman.
Collective Bargaining
A. M. Rawn, Chief Engineer, Los
Angeles County Sanitation District,
Los Angeles, Calif., at the meeting of
the American W ater Works association
held at Milwaukie June 13-16, 1944,
reported on "Developments on employee
organization in Professional fields.” His
paper was reviewed in Engineering
News Recortf of June 22, 1944, as
follows:
"Collective bargaining as manifested
by labor union activity is one of the
most potent forces in this nation to
day said A. M. Rawn, who predicted
that the privileges of collective bar
gaining would be extended to all em
ployees in some form or other. The
future must be viewed by the profes-
sional employee in a practical manner,
and he urged that engineers and others
who are engaged in public service en
terprises become familiar and be pre
pared to assume for themselves all of
the rights and privileges which the
law extends to employees.
"T o fully protect himself * * * the
professional man must * * * be pre
pared to organize and bargain collec
tively in his own behalf. W hether they
like it or not, concluded Mr. Rawn,
these are the things with which profes
sional engineers are confronted. There
fore, he recommended that they keep
alert to the situation and be fully in
formed of the rights and privileges
accorded to both employer and em
ployee.”