Image provided by: SEIU Local 503; Salem, OR
About The OSEA news. (Salem, Oregon) 1970-1981 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1970)
A member of the Association of Governmental Employees (AGE), which includes over 500,000 public employees -M l Volume X II The monthly publication of the Oregon State Employes Association June, 1970 Number 6 Employes Due 4 2 5 % Raise July 1 Months of uncertainty over whether or not state employes would get a pay raise July 1 ended when the Emergency Board voted to release the mId- biennium salary fund at its May meeting. The action means a 4.25 per Arbitration Provided In Highway Contract OSEA's collective bargaining contract which provides for binding arbitration of employe grievances has been signed by the Highway Division. It covers some 2,400 classified employes working throughout the state who are in the division's main bargaining unit. The document gives em ployes the right to request binding a rb itra tio n of grievances th a t are not resolved to their satisfaction through the agency's grievance procedure. It also requires binding a r bitration of disputes between OSE A and the agency over the interpretation or application of the contract. The contract sets forth 21 specific employe benefits. They include: (1) A guaranteed minimum of three hours pay to employes called to work outside of their regular schedule. (2) Permission for traveling maintenance crews to move personal effects on agency time. (3) Step-to-step pay raises upon adoption of a new salary plan. (4) Guaranteed pay to em ployes who are scheduled and report to work, but no work is available. (5) Use of s e n io rity in scheduling employe vacations. (6) A revised grievance procedure. The contract does not cover those employes who are in the agency's "e ng ine ering and allied " bargaining unit. OSEA's negotiating team was composed of Gene St. Clair and Les Gottsch, members of the Employe Bargaining Council, and staff members Everett Stiles, C. D. Johansen and Donald Beninger. The agency's team consisted of Ed Hunter, maintenance engineer; Dave M oehring, rig ht-o f-w a y engineer; and Gene H untley, personnel director. cent "a cro ss-th e -b o a rd " in crease for all state employes except: (1) Nurses, medical and x- ray technologists in the Por tland area. They got an in crease last February. (2) Institution principals and teachers. They w ill get an in crease Sept. 1 based on the new salary plan adopted by the Salem school district. (3) Academic employes in the System of Higher Education. Their pay raises were set by the 1969 Legislature. The p o s s ib ility th a t the Emergency Board might not release the fund has been in the air since early this year when Oregon's w elfa re d e fic it became known. , OSEA, concerned - that the money might be diverted to help reduce the welfare deficit, asked the board at its March m eeting to give employes assurance the pay fund would be released. It refused. Just b efo re th e vote to release the money was taken, Rep. Robert F. Smith (R- Burns), Speaker of the House of R epresentatives, c ritic iz e d OSEA and state employes for the manner in which they urged the board to release the money. " I abhored the way state employes made their position known," he said. "When the leaders of the state employes blew the whistle, the others came out like fire horses out of the barn and charged about the state." , " I t personally upset me the way it was handled. If in the future it is handled like this by state employe leaders, I will oppose raises at every level," he declared. Sen. Lynn Newbry (R- Ashland) said he was "not sure the association was at fa u lt." He said he fe lt the concern of state employes over the possibility of losing their pay raises was "spontaneous," and praised the OSEA staff for helping to keep a difficult situation under control. "W e feel there are no apologies to m ake," Thomas C. E n rig h t, OSEA executive secretary, said about Smith's remarks. "There may be some who feel that state employes should follow a 'papa knows best' philosophy and sit back without com m ent w hile legislators decide what to do about them ," he said. "B ut examples shown by county workers in San Fran cisco, the federal postal workers and others indicate that this is not the temper of the tim es." "State employes had a right to be concerned about the possibility of losing their ad justment money. The elected Board of Directors of the association directed a needed campaign. Sen. Newbry and other legislators felt it was dignified and constructive," Enright asserted. This Short Quiz Has Easy A n s w e r quiz th at may be taken by aft of those state employes who are scheduled to get a merit raise July 1. It's very easy. Average time to get the answer is about three seconds. Ready? Here's the question: If you are due a merit increase July 1, will you be paid under the present pay plan? Or will yey get an extra 4.25 per cent under the new plan which will go into effect on that date? You probably already have the answer, but here it is anyway i You will be paid under the present pay plan. That's right. The Personnel {»vision says merit increases that are effective July 1 will be processed prior to implementation of the 4.25 per cent Don1! you wish aB qvlxxes were that eaiy? N ew PERS Fund Reflects Irregular Stock M arket Interfaith Chapel Dedicated Evergreen Chapter 28 officers Walter Schmidt, Paul Hanson and Jeanette Simpson helped Rev. George Allen welcome one of the first visitors to the new interfaith chapel dedicated recently at Oregon State Hospital. The chapter contributed $400 toward the cost of building the chapel, which was. constructed from donated funds. In addition, chapter members Schmidt and Virgil Wilson donated their time to finish two lecturns, the alter and two alter rails. State employes last fall were given the option of electing to have a portion of th e ir re tire m e n t contributions in vested in common stocks through the new, "va ria ble annuity fu n d /' About 5,388 elected to have their money invested in the stock market. Two valuations of the variable fund have now been completed, according to the Public Employes Retirement System. The firs t showed an earnings increase of $2.55 for every $100 invested in the fund. The second, just completed, shows every $100 invested in the fund has dropped in value to $92.50. The variable fund w ill be valued each month. "Depending upon the port folio value, the earnings factor w ill be increased or decreased monthly based solely upon the value of the stock in the fund relating to the current market standing," a PERS spokesman said. At the tim e of the first valuation when each $100 in the v a ria b le fund- was w orth $102.55, each $100 in the "fix e d " portion of the retirement fund was worth $101.16. During the last valuation when each $100 of the variable fund had dropped in value to $92 50, each $100 in the "fix e d " fund was worth $101.55. State Treasurer Robert W. Straub said he has "complete confidence" in the stocks being purchased and their long-range growth prospects, He said the money being placed in stocks is expected to be invested 10 years or more. "The growth stock trend is up over such periods of tim e ," he said. Straub said the fund is get ting some benefit from "to d a y ’ s d is c o u r a g in g economy" because bond and mortgage yields, also being purchased w ith re tire m e n t funds, are at record highs of 9 to 10’/2 per cent. 14 College Workers Are Reclassified OSEA's request fo r the reclassification of 14 employes at Oregon State University and the University of Oregon has been granted by the Personnel Division. Employes reclassified in cluded seven custodial workers, three cooks, three laborers and one PBX operator. Increased pay the 14 w ill receive as the result of the action totals over $900 a month. Approval of the reclassifications culminated six months of work and in. vestigation by OSEA sta ff member John M. Schoonover:
