Managers' pay raises violate trust

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071003/OPINION/710030405/1049

KEN ALLEN

October 3, 2007

Rank-and-file state employees have been slapped in the face with the news that Gov. Ted Kulongoski has issued top-heavy pay raises for all state managers.

With 33 years of collective bargaining experience -- 16 of those years at various state "central table" negotiations -- I thought I'd heard and seen everything. But we are outraged at this proposed package for state managers. Having just finished months of face-to-face bargaining with the state, we feel like we've been lied to.

Some quick background. We, AFSCME, are the second-largest union of state employees, and we represent several state agencies with unique jobs and job classifications that are difficult to fill under any circumstances. We represent a variety of scientists and other advanced-degree people at Department of Environmental Quality, Department of Land Conservation and Development, the State Lands Division and others. We represent most Department of Corrections employees in the state, both correctional officers and the others who work inside prison walls. In the past 15 years, seven of those years have seen pay freezes for state workers, so they've only averaged a raise about every other year.

In late August, after months of negotiating for our members, we signed off on a deal that the state said was the absolute maximum it could afford. As part of that process, we spent weeks comparing data from other states and some Oregon counties and with a special eye on classifications where we know the state has special recruitment and retention problems.

But noteworthy is the fact that the Department of Administrative Services always balks at using cities and other local governments as comparators for us, especially the cities of Portland and Salem that absolutely compete with the state for employees. Yet DAS is happy to turn right around and use such cities as comparators for justifying its management raises!

FULL stroy at link.