13
Sign Up a New Member
By FLOYD A. QUERY •
Junior Past President
When you sign up a new member
you do him or her, a s ' well as; your-
self a favor. By joining the Oregon
State Employees Association a person
has an opportunity ?to - participate ^finj
the affairs of the, association, to help
determine ?ifs policies/ its -objectives tp
be I attained, the means of attaining
them, etc. There should be no question
in anyone’s mind about the necessity
of 'dirganization. W hether We like it or
S K -iB is a necessity. If you wish to
question this, .you need only ^o4. look
about you at any other type of em
ployment, busiriess or professibife..and
you find all of these groups well or
ganized.
Our Aims
'Frankly, the O.S.E.A. ^ s tr iv in g to
improve conditions for State employees.'
They have not, however^* approached
this problem with the attitude that the
imprdvement should be hiaade at. the
expense h f the public welfare, but rath
er to the advantage of the public. It
takes only elementary; "horse sense” to
realize I that no one, dan expect first
fate governmental service, if that ser
vice is tied to a third rate wage struc
ture ¿nd poor working conditions. I
Some Accomplishments
Now, someone may ask, what has
the O.S.E.A. fo do with all of this?
Let us go hack about two years. If you
^happened to be a laborer then you were
getting -71c an hour; or, 4f you were a
-file clerk, you were getting about $100
a month; Some o f y o u got sick leave
and vacation w ith pay,’ some did not.-
There was a distinct Tack of unifofna^
ity in personnel policies and practices.
It is, to. the everlasting credit of the
O.S.E.A. and the 1945 legislative „ as
sembly, that they realized hi«/ chaotic
condition could be corrected only by
a cornplete overhaul—-piecemeal, meas
ures' would not suffice. As a result our
C ivil,Service Law'was passed, which has
already I corrected many inequities. A t
the'sam e“ ¿eSsion -our Retirement Plan
became law. During the last summer
the O.S.E.A. requested tarid received an
overall ' wage increase .for state em
ployees varying from $10ig0 to $25.00
per month; and also asked for and re
ceived a $3.0CEper diem expense allow
ance for traveling crews o f.th e High*-/
way Department. The civil service pay
plan, through thé efforts of the O.S.E.
A. has been made effective March 1st
instead of July
bringing increases
in pay to about 3700 employees.
There Are Scoffers
These accomplishments, and a I lot
more which could be mentioned, are
stated hefe not for th e purpose of
bragging, but I as . plain I statements of
fact. There are those who have scoffed
at and ridiculed, our efforts. By repeti
tion of subversive statements, they have
sought to establish the thought that
the O.S.E.A. is a "do nothing’ ’organ
ization— that we are an "employer
controlled**’ group, and. that we are
headed for the ash jçtef ’ .To that we
can only say "nuts!” I
It is natural for a sucpeWpl, grow
ing organization to have enemies who
will seek to destroy it. N o new 'and
vitaLdhfluencc ever came into being
without arousing the emnity of those
who feel th a t their prerogatives are
being infringed upon.
Necessity to Grow
’ It is to the interest of all state em
ployees to strengthen the influence of
the O.S.E.A. During thia: last legislative
.’session our legal council has been ask
ed frankly by some members of the
legislature, just how many employees
we represent. It/hasi been somewhat em
barrassing to admit that our member
ship ms only slightly, over 3000, less
than orie-half of -the; total number of
state employees. Those who are making
a career of state service have a great