SEIU Local 503 has begun collective bargaining

The state's largest public employee union has begun negotiating its contract for the next two years, which will have an impact on most state workers, as the state tends to adopt similar policies for everyone in order to have uniformity.

Service Employees International Union Local 503 renegotiates the terms of its employees' contract every two years at the same time the Oregon Legislature wrestles with a budget.

It laid out its final list of demands on March 18, and the Department of Administrative Services will come up with a response, with the general idea being they will meet somewhere in the middle.

Here's what SEIU Local 503 asked for:

•A cost-of-living increase each year, between 2 percent and 6 percent. (It would be calculated as inflation + 2 percent, with a floor of 2 percent and a ceiling of 6 percent, which means workers could have an increase even in years with no inflation.)

•Step increases in each year of the contract.

•No changes to the health insurance plan.

• "Buy out" the 6 percent contribution to accounts under the Public Employees Retirement System. As it is now, the state pays the 6 percent of salaries that employees are expected to contribute. The union would like the state to stop doing that and instead give everyone a 6 percent salary increase and let them make their own contributions.

•Establish a $15 minimum wage for all state employees.

•Address the state's gender pay gap. Overall, women make about 88 cents per every dollar a man makes in state government.

The union also has a list of "non economic" demands that are meant to create a better working environment for employees, even though they don't necessarily mean getting paid more.

Those are:

•Allow volunteer firefighters paid and unpaid leave.

•Ask the State of Oregon to support a bill that would require companies to pay a fee if they pay employees wages so low they require public benefits (such as food stamps) to make ends meet.

•Offer paid leave for charity work at a nonprofit or school.

•Paid parental leave for new parents to bond with an infant or adopted child.

•Increase the use of flexible schedules and telecommuting.

•Pay for workers kept home due to weather.

•Give regular feedback to employees during their trial service periods.

•Consider seasonal employees as internal candidates for open permanent positions.

•Stop asking about criminal histories on job applications.

The process to hammer out these, and other details, will take weeks. The SEIU website says the DAS has not suggested freezing wages, but it has suggested putting a cap on what the state would pay for health insurance and wants to make a counter-proposal to the cost of living demands.

The bargaining team meets again on Wednesday for the next round of discussions.

hhoffman@statesmanjournal.com, (503) 399-6719 or follow at twitter.com/HannahKHoffman