Largest state worker union OKs deal

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published September 30, 2008

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The largest state worker union Monday approved a two-year deal that includes annual raises of 2 percent, plus an extra day off each year.

But the union that represents workers at state prisons rejected a similar deal, pushing negotiations down to the wire as a Wednesday deadline approaches.

Pressures are mounting on both workers, who face rising fuel and food costs, and state budget writers, who face a faltering economy. According to the latest forecast, legislators will have $3.2 billion less than they are scheduled to spend in the next budget.

"I think people uniformly think it's too little. But I think they know that the governor has to look out into the future and try to see where the state will be," said Greg Devereux, executive director of the Washington Federation of State Employees.

Members of the union approved the tentative contract, which will affect 33,000 workers. It includes many provisions about workplace conditions, as do other contracts, but Devereux said pay was issue No. 1 for workers.

"I think people are looking at the economic reality and voting their pocketbook," he said.

However, members of Teamsters Local 117, which represents 6,400 prison workers, voted down what Gov. Chris Gregoire's team called their best and final offer of 2 percent raises. Union leadership called on the state to come back to the bargaining table, arguing that prison work of any kind, as a corrections officer or as a secretary, deserves extra pay.

Gregoire and her budget director, Victor Moore, planned to meet on the impasse, but had no immediate plans for new negotiations with the Teamsters, said Kate Lykins Brown, spokeswoman for the Office of Financial Management.

Unions have until midnight Wednesday to OK a contract.

Aside from the Teamsters, unions still without a ratified contract include the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, which represents engineers in the Department of Transportation, and state nurses, represented by Service Employees International Union Local 1199NW.

For unions that meet the deadline, Gregoire's team will include their deals in her budget proposal to the Legislature.

Lawmakers will have a yes-or- no vote on funding the contract, and reception to the proposals has been mixed.

Rep. Gary Alexander, the lead Republican budget writer in the House, has said they should be approved, but his Democratic counterpart, Rep. Hans Dunshee, was less certain, saying only that all options are open. And the lead Republican budget writer in the Senate, Sen. Joe Zarelli, has suggested asking workers to pay more for health care benefits.

The unions will lobby lawmakers to support their contracts, as they have done successfully the past two budget cycles.