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About The OSEA news. (Salem, Oregon) 1970-1981 | View Entire Issue (June 29, 1978)
Page 10 The OSEA News June 29,1978 OLCC employes show committees can work PORTLAND - This is a story of an employe committee that worked -- beautifully. The reorganization of the Oregon Liquor Control Com mission (OLCC) required a number of relocations of em ployes in the agency. When it began, following “Liquorgate,” the state Attorney General’s investigation and report and the appointment of Stafford Hansell as the agency’s temporary director, the employes met with OSE A- Special Assistant Tom Gallagher because they were concerned that their rights might get lost in the shuffle. Gallagher suggested a telephone tree to keep, employes in the outlying areas informed of events in the OLCC’s Milwaukie headquarters. OSE A member and liquor control officer Jerry Lelack and his fellow employes took it from there. The reorganization was necessitated, in part, by the split of the licensing and en forcement functions of the agency, a recommendation of all groups and persons who had been critical of the agency. When management requested input from the employes on how the relocations would be han dled, the employes met in a Portland restaurant to organize themselves for this task. “Our plan was to gather information from the employes or to pass information oh to. them,” said Lelack. “When we gathered the information, we would go over the situation at the time and make a decision and give the decision to the director.” “In the beginning,” Lelack said, “we were making decisions about the criteria to be used in the relocations.” Employes in the cities where the jobs were available would get the first choice on cities and divisions. After that, seniority became a consideration. Finally, it was education and experience. In the case of a tie, the committee would decide. “ In the event of a tie, ” Lelack said, “the people tied made up a list of experience and education and gave us the list without their names on them. The committee reviewed all this and determined who would get the location two or more people requested.” Under reorganization, only the enforcement officers were OSEA nurses’ pay brought up to par An agreement between OSEA and the Executive Department, which was necessary to com plete - central t negotiations before the close of the 1977 Legislature, has now been fulfilled. This agreement has brought the rate of pay of nurses represented by OSEA up with that of those nurses represented by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA). The process was completed with action taken by the Legislative Emergency Board June 16 at the request of OSEA Govern ment Relations Director Bill Wyatt and John Demusiak, negotiator for the Executive Department. While OSEA represents 90 per cent of the represented state employes, it only represents, about 10 per cent of the over 1,000 nurses covered by collective bargaining. ONA represents some 900 of these. After nearly nine months of bargaining and in order to in duce our settlement prior to legislative adjournment and thereby complete all negotiations with OSEA, the Executive Department agreed that it would reopen negotiations with OSEA in the event that the ONA settlement was higher than ours. In early November 1977, the Executive Department came to agreement with ONA. ONA’s members refused to ratify the agreement, however, because portions of the pay settlement were not as high as OSEA’s. Later that same month agreement was reached and ratified. Shortly thereafter, the Executive Department re negotiated the agreement with OSEA, in accordance with the earlier agreement. The funding of the OSEA agreement by the Emergency Board was held up for sometime, however, by a Legislative Fiscal staff recommendation opposing the renegotiated OSEA agreement. After the testimony of Wyatt and Demusiak, the E-Board approved the package. Newport's Newest Ocean Front Motel ALL UNITS: Ocean Front Queen Size Beds Easy Beach Access Color TV SOME KITCHENS & FIREPLACES Write or call: Windjammer Motel 744 S.W. Elizabeth St., Newport Pnone: 265-8853 to remain under the police and fire pension fund and they were required to take additional training at Camp Rilea on the coast north of Seaside. Liquor control officers are not military recruits, but you wouldn’t have known that from the training program planned for Camp Rilea. It was up at dawn for calisthenics, institutional chow for three meals, required at tendance and confinement to camp in the evenings. “It was a pretty tight schedule,” Lelack said. “Nobody was to leave the camp area at night? sA lot felt restricted. Some wanted to go to town after class, so we sat down with the management and the restrictions were lifted. We negotiated on overtime.” It was understood that the classes were required and that physical conditioning would be part of the job. But the em ployes were free during meals and anytime they weren’t required to attend a class or an evening discussion period. In the end, they accumulated a small amount of compensatory time off for overtime. Management knew that to raise morale and cooperation among the OLCC workers after the turmoil they had been through it was important to get them involved in their own destinies. To get the workers confidence, management had to make them aware not only of the benefits but of the problems in the situation. This committee, primarily of Portland-area employes, had as its purpose to express the wishes of the employes to I NEW! management and to get in formation from management out to the out-lying areas. “They all wanted us to let them know what was happening as soon as we were informed,” Lelack said. If there was a decision to make, the com mittee either would make it or it would take a poll of their fellow workers. “If we wanted something, it was presented in that way,” he said. “The committee was accepted very well by management staff. The key was that we were not unreasonable.,” , The committee will, be in operation through July 1979. That’s when it is believed that the legislature will have made a decision about the future of the OLCC. From now until then, there still will be people wan ting to move from licensing to enforcement or from en- focement to licensing and problems for the committee to tackle. How has the committee worked? “It’s great,! love it,” said Lelack. “It strengthens communication. If employes are hearing information from people they work with, they feel they are getting the straight scoop. If. it comes in memo form, you don’t know what’s behind the memo. For the most part, even some of the old management is finding it workable.” HAVE A PEPSI DAY BEA PEPPER Complete Service For Parties — Picnics — Special Events Vending “where to call" Pepsi-Cola — Dr Pepper Bottling Co. 3011 Silverton Rd., N.E. Salem, Oregon NEW! Phone 363-9221 NEW! YES, YOUR NEW CREDIT UNION BUILDING IS NOW COMPLETED AND WE HAVE MOVED IN!!! NOT ONLY DO YOU HAVE A MORE CONVENIENT PLACE IN WHICH TO CONDUCT YOUR BUSINESS, BUT WE ALSO HAVE EXPANDED SERVICES TO MEET YOUR NEEDS. ft/ 6.25 To NEW HIGHER DIVIDEND DIVIDEND PAID QUARTERLY ON ALL SHARE ACCOUNTS. NEW LOCATION 1550 STATE STREET - FREE PARKING AVAILABLE. NEW WATTS LINE FOR OUR MEMBERS OUTSIDE THE SALEM AREA, WE HAVE A TOLL- FREE LINE, PLEASE USE IT: 1-800-452-7816. NEW CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT LONGER TERM, HIGHER YIELD, AVAILABLE JUNE 13th, 1978. ALL STATE EMPLOYEES AND THEIR FAMILIES ARE ELIGIBLE TO BE MEMBERS EACH MEMBER ACCOUNT INSURED TO $40,000. by ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL CREDIT UNION ADMINISTRATION. FOR YOUR FINANCIAL NEEDS, CALL YOUR CREDIT UNIQN: STATE EMPLOYEES CREDIT UNION 1550 State Street Salem, Oregon 97308 585-7084
