University classified staff has been asked to accept a contract that would require staff members to take at least 20 unpaid days off during the next two years and accept any additional furlough days the state may dictate.
The Oregon University System has begun bargaining with the classified staff union, which encompasses employees at all OUS schools who are not faculty or administration. The contract presented to University classified staff Friday contains four changes for the next two years: a cost-of-living freeze, a merit pay freeze, unpaid holidays and the state’s ability to declare any additional unpaid days.
The unpaid holidays amount to 20 unpaid days off that are not in an employee’s existing contract.
Deanna Berglund, bargaining representative for the University chapter of the union, said the staff has issued a response to OUS, which suggests the staff take eight furlough days, with two in the current biennium, and a cost-of-living freeze. OUS has yet to respond.
The stipulation of an unidentified number of additional furlough days at the state’s discretion is the largest problem the staff has found in the proposed contract, Berglund said.
“Our union members definitely expected to sacrifice this biennium,” Berglund said. “This just strikes us as an excessive sacrifice.”
Lois Yoshishige, union president at the University, said the staff has been “outraged” by the demands made by OUS. “We classified employees do recognize the situation the state is in and do want to do our part,” she said, but she added that the ability to furlough the staff at any time “is kind of like giving them a blank check.”
The OUS put that ability in the contract to avoid more individual cuts, OUS Director of Labor Relations Rick Hampton said. “The new contract is intended to avoid the layoffs and spread the pain,” he said.
Under the existing contract, Hampton said, the University would almost be required to make layoffs. He sees furlough days as preferable to that option.
In addition, Gov. Ted Kulongoski based his budget forecast on the assumption that all state employees will take furlough days, Hampton said. “We try to act consistently with what the governor sets out for us.”
Furlough days may end up being a possibility for more than just classified staff at the University. Senior Vice President and Provost Jim Bean said, “I’m very much in favor of doing something along those lines.”
Bean said the University administration does not want to lay off any employees, and is currently working out legal issues that come with furlough days, because many faculty contracts don’t allow them easily.
If the administration does ask faculty to take furlough days, he said, the faculty won’t be alone. Both Bean and President Dave Frohnmayer intend to take several furlough days as well, he said.
While administrators said they don’t want layoffs to occur, union members don’t trust the motives of OUS and its bargaining representatives.
Yoshishige, the union president, said the union doesn’t trust OUS for the way it has treated the union in the past. “Previous contract negotiations have, unfortunately, made us suspicious,” she said.
Negotiating the contract will not be finished this school year, most likely, Berglund said. “I have no idea how long,” she said, “but at the rate we’re going, it could last well into summer.”
Classified staff asked to take unpaid days
Daily Emerald
March 3, 2009
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