University classified employees and service workers from around Eugene gathered in the rain Tuesday evening on the corner of Franklin Boulevard and Agate Street to gain support for their contract negotiations with the state and the Oregon University System and to rally for senate bills addressing health care coverage.
Negotiations for the next contract between the Service Employees International Union Local 503 and OUS began Feb. 4, and union representatives said they will do whatever it takes to ensure they maintain the fully paid health insurance the state is threatening to take away.
Union representatives said they are also fighting a larger battle: the battle for affordable health care for all Oregonians.
The state is proposing a contract that involves payment from employees to maintain health care coverage. Union members said this will counter the wage increases offered by reducing the amount of money employees will end up taking home.
“We are feeling stuck, real frustrated, real angry,” University employee and union bargaining team member Star Holmberg said. “This is a testimony to our feelings,” she said, a reference to the number of rally-goers, approximately 50, being pummeled by wind and rain.
The state department of administrative services is handling the negotiations regarding what OUS director of labor relations Rick Hampton said were the three biggest issues in the contract: pension, retirement and across-the-board wage increases. Hampton said he is under the impression the governor wants consistency in those three areas for all state
contracted employees.
Holmberg said negotiations with the state
began in December.
Hampton said the union and OUS agreed to let the state handle negotiations on those issues while OUS bargained on other issues like work rule changes and other minor matters.
At the bargaining table the union represents nearly 20,000 workers across Oregon, with about 1,200 employed at the University. The union represents classified employees at the University, including groundskeepers, custodians and office clerks.
Hampton said there is discussion regarding issues like caps and maximum contributions by employers and said “at some point it’s possible (employees will) have to contribute to their health care.”
Problems with the cost of health insurance are evident across the country and Oregon has been hit with particularly crippling financial problems, which Hampton said can account for some of the sticking points in health care.
“Health care tends to be an issue in every negotiation these days, private or public sector,” Hampton said.
Union members said the financial crisis facing the state is no reason for a reduction in their health
care benefits.
“I know we’re in a crisis. The whole state is in a crisis,” union member and Oregon state parks employee Angie Hazelton said. “We’re not asking for a whole lot. We’re just asking for a living wage.”
Holmberg said the union is not just fighting to maintain the health care coverage they currently have, they’re also working to draw attention to state senate bills aimed at controlling the rising cost of health care.
“What we’re proposing is something that would be to the benefit of all Oregonians and would basically pull the reins back on the big business that is health care, so that it isn’t just shifted to the employees,” Holmberg said.
The union is rallying support for Senate Bills 501, 502, 503, 504 and 505. The union says the bills focus on creating a health care insurance rate review board, giving the review board power to set hospital prices, requiring public examination of the need for new hospital spending, requiring certain hospitals to set up financial assistance programs and expanding the Oregon Prescription Drug Program, respectively.
Hampton said because the state is handling the negotiations concerning health care coverage, he cannot comment on how the bargaining is going, but he said the issues the OUS is working on with the union have not generated much conflict.
“I don’t feel that things are heating up in the issues we are negotiating,” Hampton said, adding that OUS’ side of the contract proposal does not include any major takeaways or reductions.
Negotiations are expected to last several months, and Holmberg said the union will be rallying in Salem on May 21 to commemorate the
10-year anniversary of the statewide membership strike that saw
10,000 union members rally at the Capitol building.
“This action has put the emphasis on the major economic issues, and health care is one of those major economic issues that’s surfacing at every single bargaining table across the nation,” Holmberg said.

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