Contract negotiations between Washington State University and the Washington Federation of State Employees hit a major bump in the road recently when the union requested full paid release time for nine WSU union representatives involved in the talks. In short, university negotiators previously had offered to pay for some release time for seven negotiators, but said no to paying all costs.
Administrators say there is no provision in the WFSE’s union contract for paid release time for purposes related to contract negotiations, and that the number of elected representatives the union chooses to bring to the negotiating table is optional.
Negotiations began Jan. 15, as the two sides tried to establish ground rules by which to nego-tiate a collective bargaining agreement. Numerous rules were agreed to over four meetings, but the issue of paid release time continued to be a “sticking point,” said Glenn Frye, WSU’s labor relations officer.
Initially, administrators adopted a position that WSU would not provide for paid release time. On Feb. 19, administrators revised their proposal, offering to pay for two hours of paid release time at each future negotiation meeting for up to seven elected union representatives (one for each bargaining unit represented), said Stevan DeSoer, director of WSU’s Human Resource Services.
The average meeting length, up to that point, had been about four hours, Frye said.
The union countered, saying that it wanted each of its nine elected bargaining members (who work with two WFSE negotiators) to receive 24 hours of paid release time per week from now until May 31. On June 1, release time would increase to 40 hours per week.
“At that point, it was obvious that there was no meeting of the minds,” said DeSoer. “Instead, we were moving further apart.
“The WFSE’s chief negotiator, Electra Jubon, had said she had 58 contract articles ready to present and negotiate. So, we suggested that we forego negotiating the ground rules and move ahead with negotiating actual contract articles.
“Nothing says we have to have a set of ground rules,” said DeSoer. “It just establishes a system that makes the process easier. And there is nothing specifying that there be a certain number of union representatives. The union could bring 2 or 3 or 7 or 20. That’s up to them.”
At the table
Tim Welch, director of public affairs for the WFSE, told WSU Today in an e-mail that without paid release time, “ground rules are not of much value to the union side of the table.” And, like DeSoer, he said ground rules were “nice but not required.” But he contended that “the administration team walked away from those ground rules negotiations.”
DeSoer disagrees. He said all negotiators “continued to sit at the table and scheduled six more meetings,” to begin 5 p.m. on March 4, 17, 18, 25 and 31, and April 1.
“We did not break off negotiations or walk away from the table,” said Frye. “We essentially agreed to disagree regarding ground rules and agreed to transition into actual contract negotiations.”
“Release time is a major issue with us,” said Welch, “because management is getting paid to negotiate. If the union team has no release time, it’s as if there’s a price of admission to bargaining — and only one side of the table is paying, the employee side. When you enter negotiations, both the union side and management side are equals. Refusing to grant equal release time consideration sends the message that the administration believes the employee side is not eligible for those equal rights. And that’s just not fair.”
WSU negotiators, contend that they are on Administrative/Professional contracts and that they get no additional pay for their efforts either. All meetings, except the first one on Jan. 15, have been scheduled for 5 p.m., so everyone has already worked a full day.
Deadline looming
WSU has three unions representing its bargaining units — the WFSE, the International Association of Fire Fighters, and WSU Police Guild — which will each require an established contract. By legislative mandate those contracts must be submitted to the governor on Oct. 1, so the Office of Financial Management can review them and pass them along to the Legislature for approval or rejection during the 2005 legislative session.
OFM will review union negotiated contracts from various general government agencies, as well as the University of Washington, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington University, Western Washington University and WSU. Consequently, providing those contracts on time is important.
Classified employees statewide who are not represented by a recognized bargaining unit will be covered by the state’s Civil Service rules, which are being revamped under the Personnel System Reform Act of 2002. Those rules, including position classifications, benefits and salary ranges, will all be reviewed by the Department of Personnel.
As part of the new collective bargaining process, the governor has appointed bargaining representatives to negotiate on behalf of all general government agencies and most community colleges. The governor’s bargaining team and the WFSE met last week for the first time to negotiate those ground rules. They too were unable to reach an agreement. So the WFSE and the governor’s team are proceeding with bargaining a contract without ground rules.
At WSU, negotiations with the IAFF and Police Guild have not officially begun yet.
Open shop, agency fees
WSU’s Institutional Research office reports that the university had approximately 2,124 full- and part-time classified employees statewide as of fall 2003. Of those, about 1,285 fall under union bargaining agreements, with the remaining 839 coming under the state’s Civil Service rules, according to WSU’s Labor Relations Office.
All of the bargaining units at WSU, except the firefighters, have what is referred to as an “open shop.” What that means is people whose positions fall under a union bargaining agreement are not required to join the union or pay union dues.
The IAFF represents four employees and the Police Guild 26 employees. As a result, the WFSE represents by far the largest number of employees with about 1,255, Frye said. But most of those people are not “union members.” Welch said the union has about 200 members who pay dues. That’s about 15 percent of the people WFSE represents in negotiations.
In order to pay for negotiating costs, WFSE might request an “agency fee” to be paid by all employees who work in a position that is covered by a WFSE’s contract.
An agency fee — which is said to be one of the most frequent requests by unions during bargaining sessions — requires nonunion bargaining unit members to either become union members or pay a representation fee. That fee is designed to pay for costs associated with collective bargaining and contract administration. Without the fee, nonmembers are perceived as receiving the benefits of the union’s representation without making any contributions to its cost. (For information on agency fees, do an online search for Teachers v. Hudson, a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.)
This is the first time WSU and WFSE have entered into full-scope bargaining, including wages, work hours, health care premiums, working conditions, sick leave, etc.
