Corrections union wins raises for 300

The Teamsters returned to the bargaining table this month and won pay raises for more than 300 members in the Department of Corrections.

Teamsters Local 117 was the only union to negotiate a "re-opener" clause in the two-year contracts agreed to last fall, allowing it to bargain over pay again this year.

The new deal, reached last week, will mean raises for specific job classes which the state has found hard to fill, Leonard Smith, organizing director for the union, said.

"I think the state, at least this governor, has come around to say yes, we do have this problem here. They really came through for these classifications," he said.

Approval pending

The Office of Financial Management and the Legislature must approve the agreement.

Classification counselors, water distribution specialists, mental health counselors, psychologist levels three and four, and nurse levels two and four will receive the raises, according to Smith.

Taking into account the workers who have left the department as well as new hires, the agency has gained seven employees in seven months of intensive recruitment advertising, it reported in June. The agency was 477 people behind its two-year hiring plan

"There are some specific job classes that we evaluated for recruitment and retention purposes and gave increases generally of 5 percent or less," Steve McLain, director of the governor's Labor Relations Office, said. "Some of those are in geographic areas where they're having particular problems."

McLain, the chief negotiator for Gov. Chris Gregoire, said the costs of the raises have not been calculated, but will be available this week.

Negotiations

The contract provision that allowed the union to return to the bargaining table was the result of unusually contentious negotiations last year.

The Teamsters, which represents about 5,000 Corrections workers in state facilities, voted down a contract that included the same 3.2 percent and 2 percent pay raises included in other union contracts.

The union and state negotiators hastily reached a new agreement that included the reopener, higher pay for workers while they train others and additional changes.

Although Smith was critical of Gregoire's one-size-fits-all approach to raises last year, he was complimentary of the new deal last week.

"We still have a long way to even get to the (average pay level). But we have a state administration now that is finally recognizing years of neglect," he said.