State pay plan: the real deal moves forward

The state employee pay plan is moving forward through the 2005 Legislature, despite a few bumps in the road.

The pay plan agreement, negotiated by members of MEA-MFT, the Montana Public Employees Association, and Governor Brian Schweitzer's administration, has been in the works for nine months.

The unions' joint bargaining team, with representatives from each of MEA-MFT's state employee locals, reached a tentative pay plan agreement with the state January 7. By mail-in ballot, MEA-MFT members ratified the agreement by 89 percent, MPEA members by 88 percent. Votes were counted January 21.

Now the unions must work with Governor Schweitzer's office to pass the agreement through the legislature.

The pay plan originally was contained in House Bill 13, but that bill died in a bit of bizarre political gamesmanship January 24.

The pay plan is still very much alive, however. It now resides, fully intact, in House Bill 447, sponsored by Representative Dave Gallick, D-Helena.

"We feel confident our pay plan agreement will pass the House and Senate and land on the governor's desk for signature," said MEA-MFT President Eric Feaver. "We'll need every state employee member to help in the effort."

Under the ratified agreement, all state employees will earn at least 3.5 percent or $1,005 more in the first year of the biennium and 4.0 percent or $1,118 in the second year.

Fair deal for ALL members
"MEA-MFT members on the bargaining team worked very hard to reach a fair deal for all our state employee members," said MEA-MFT Field Consultant Todd Lovshin, who helped with the prebudget bargaining process.

"The deal they made honors all state employees and the valuable work they do. It particularly helps people on the lower end of the pay scale. It will also help the state recruit and retain talented professionals such as the nurses who take care of our most vulnerable citizens, the drug counselors who help people kick their addictions, and our university faculty who are the lowest paid in the nation. The agreement makes sure no one is left out in the cold."

"The agreement does not repair the damage done to state employees in the past, with frozen salaries and an insulting 25-cent raise," said Feaver. "But it is an important step toward a brighter future. And it is without doubt the best deal we will get at the present time."

"With this agreement, we can finally help people on the lower end of the pay scale," said MEA-MFT member Karen Whyde, a member of the bargaining team who works at the Dept. of Public Health and Human Services.

Attempted coup fails
In another strange plot twist, some Republican legislators tried to derail the pay plan agreement January 24 by offering a completely different plan, House Bill 268.

"House Bill 268 was clearly an attempt to undercut the unions' agreement," said Lovshin. "Those who offered it were never serious about helping state employees. It's a divide-and-conquer technique."

Most state employees saw through the ploy and remained loyal to the negotiated agreement, now in HB 447.

"I support House Bill 447 because it is a ratified, negotiated agreement between organized labor and the governor," said Jim Milligan, a correctional office at Montana State Prison.

"If the Republicans are sincere, why didn't they make the offer before?" said Monica Sayler, co-president of the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind Federation in Great Falls.

"It's like telling me I can get a better deal on an airplane ticket after the plane has taken off. The union has negotiated and ratified in good faith. The plane has taken off."

"House Bill 447 is the real deal," said Lovshin. "It is funded and included in the governor's budget. House Bill 268 is not funded and will never be in the governor's budget. House Bill 447 includes significant increases in employer contributions to health insurance premiums, along with funding for professional development. House Bill 268 has none of those things."

The negotiated, ratified agreement in HB 447 will cost the state $36 million in general funds in the coming biennium.

"This is not small change," Feaver said. "Given what we think the governor and the state legislature have to spend on state programs, health care, the university system, k-12 schools, and so on, state employees will be doing very well if we can pass this through the legislature."

We'll need every state employee member to help pass HB 447 by contacting their legislators.