Office of Governor Gary Locke
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - September 23, 2004
Contact:  Washington Works, 360-902-0527
Alt Contact:  Governor's Communications Office, 360-902-4136

State Reaches Final Tentative Agreement with Nurses Union in Historic Collective Bargaining Effort

OLYMPIA – Sept. 23, 2004 – Gov. Gary Locke today announced that the state has reached a tentative contract agreement with the Service Employees International Union, local 1199 NW, representing 800 state nurses. Locke made the announcement from Hong Kong, where he is wrapping up a 10-day trade mission to Asia.

This contract represents the last of nine agreements reached between the Governor’s Office and state worker unions in negotiations that began in February. It’s the first time in state history that unions have been able to bargain directly with the Governor’s Office for wages and benefits.

“All sides worked together and negotiated in good faith to reach these agreements,” Locke said. “I am proud of our state’s new collective bargaining process. These agreements are a credit to the hard work of everyone involved, especially our chief state negotiator Eva Santos.”

Consistent with the state’s eight other tentative agreements, the SEIU-represented nurses would receive a 3.2 percent wage increase, beginning July 1, 2005. But unlike the earlier agreements, the SEIU contract would create a new step for the nurses, resulting in a salary increase of 2.5 percent for about 500 nurses with at least 18 years of experience.

Seven tentative agreements have been reached during the past two weeks with the following unions representing general government state employees:
· The Service Employees International Union, Local 1199 NW
· The Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 117
· United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 1001
· Washington Federation of State Employees, AFSCME Council 28
· Washington Public Employees Association, UFCW, Local 365
· International Federation of Professional & Technical Engineers, Local 17
· Coalition of unions (includes Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 760; International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 76; Washington State Patrol Communication Managers Association; Plumbers & Pipefitters, Local 32; International Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots; Washington Association of Professional Biologists; and Washington State Nurses Association)

Two additional tentative agreements were reached with the Washington Federation of State Employees and the Washington Public Employees Association on behalf of employees at state community colleges and The Evergreen State College.

“We feel a strong sense of accomplishment,” Santos said. “These agreements will help state managers and employees do their jobs more effectively.”

Bargaining unit members must now vote on whether to ratify the contracts. If ratified by the 49,000 state employees represented by these agreements, all the contracts would include a 3.2 percent wage increase starting July 2005.

The agreements also include 1.6 percent second-year increases that will expire after the 12 months they are in effect, except the agreement with the Teamsters, which calls for a 2.9 percent second-year expiring increase.

In addition, contracts with unions representing employees whose salaries have lagged more than 25 percent behind market rates for workers in similar jobs would receive varying increases to bring those salaries to within 25 percent of the prevailing rate.

Employees receiving these market rate increases were identified using the 2002 Salary Survey conducted by the state Department of Personnel and affects hundreds of job classes including: park rangers, engineers, dental assistants, lab technicians, plumbers, judges, welders, chemists, geologists, cartographers and electrical inspectors.

All tentative agreements reflect an earlier settlement negotiated with the unions in a coalition agreement in which the state agreed to contribute 88 percent of estimated health benefit costs, leaving employee contributions at 12 percent.

Under these tentative agreements, all employees covered by the contracts can vote on ratification. All ratified contracts are due to the state Office of Financial Management by Oct. 1. Locke will submit the economic terms of the agreements to the Legislature in his 2005-07 budget proposal.

The 2005 Legislature has the role of approving or rejecting the cost of the agreements. If the cost proposal is rejected, that would trigger a return to negotiations, or unions could request mediation.

This year’s contract negotiations marked the first time in state history that unions have been able to bargain directly with the Governor’s Office for wages and benefits. The new Personnel System Reform Act passed by the Legislature in 2002 expanded the state’s collective bargaining activities to include wages and benefits. In the past, the Legislature unilaterally set those terms.

The goal of the legislation is to enable state managers and employees to perform their jobs more effectively, make employment rules consistent and easy to understand, and create a flexible personnel system that anticipates and responds to changing needs. The state’s coordinated effort to implement the new law is called “Washington Works.”

“Washington Works” uses provisions of the Personnel System Reform Act – civil service reform, collective bargaining and competitive contracting – to further improve Washington’s high-performance government.

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Related Links:
- Washington Works

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