Staff Photo by Don Cresswell

Picketing nonsecurity workers hold up signs near Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution on the first day of their strike Oct. 18. A tentative settlement was reached Saturday.

EOCI personnel back at work

Both sides seem pleased with agreement ending strike

eastoregonian.com/front page/10-25-99

By the East Oregonian and The Associated Press

PENDLETON — One week after walking off the job demanding higher wages, non-security union employees at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution and other state prisons went back to work Monday morning.

Although most workers returned to work at 12:01 a.m., some employees went back early to help EOCI return to normal operations, said local union representative Jim Steiner.

Leaders of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the state Department of Corrections struck a tentative agreement Saturday, ending a strike by 750 non-security employees at eight of Oregon’s 13 state prisons.

Negotiators reached the agreement after a 19-hour mediation session, approving a pay package that includes an $1,100 signing bonus and a 5.3 percent pay increase for employees over the two-year term of the contract.

The key to the agreement was a proposal to form a committee to survey the types of security functions the so-called ‘‘nonsecurity’’ workers are asked to perform. Salaries would be adjusted based on their recommendations.

Employees will vote to ratify the agreement next week, but results may not be final for a few weeks, said AFSCME spokesman Don Loving.

‘‘This is a very good settlement,’’ he said. ‘‘You absolutely could not have gotten this if workers had not gone on strike.’’

Non-security employees are those who work as nurses, counselors, clerks, electricians, food-kitchen help and fill other staff positions. Management and corrections officers were doing the jobs during the strike.

The union had argued that non-security workers perform jobs that put them in contact with inmates, and that they should be paid more for the increased risk.

‘‘It’ a real win-win agreement,’’ said Perrin Damon, a Department of Corrections spokeswoman. ‘‘The union’s creativity really made things move fast.’’

Non-security workers will return to their jobs immediately and will vote to ratify the agreement early next week. Loving said the ratification process would take up to three weeks.

The wage increases keeps corrections workers 10 percent ahead of their counterparts in other areas of government, Damon said.

Top pay for counselors is $48,000 a year, food service coordinators get $36,000 annual salaries and clerical staffers get top pay of $27,000.