After a week-long strike — the first in the union’s history — Benton County workers represented by AFSCME Local 2064 ratified a new contract.
Nearly 95% of the members supported the proposed contract in a Nov. 20 vote.
AFSCME represents more than 300 Benton County employees, making up more than half of the county’s personnel.
Workers returned to work Nov. 21, though the county board of commissioners isn’t scheduled to ratify the contract until early December.
The new contract raises wages, adds safety measures, and rejects a county proposal to introduce pay for performance.
When negotiations started nearly a year ago, chief steward Joe Moore thought it would be a fairly easy process, focusing on cost-of-living adjustments and some contract language.
But in early 2024, Benton County managers received significant raises ranging from 20% to 48%. The county’s Human Resources Director got a $51,000 raise, according to Oregon AFSCME. The top 63 salary earners at the county got a total of $1.6 million in raises, Moore said, which averages out to more than $25,000 per person.
Positions at Benton County represented by AFSCME fall into three “bands.” Workers in the highest-paid C band are getting a 5% raise, and workers in the lowest-paid A band are getting a 3% raise. All three bands will also get a 4.4% cost of living adjustment, so the total raises for the first year are 7.4% or higher.
In recent contract cycles, the focus has been on bringing up wages for the lowest-paid members, but that has meant the highest-paid members have fallen behind the labor market, Moore said.
“This one is for Pete,” says a Benton County strike picket sign. The sign refers to Pete Neuman, a county road maintenance worker who was killed on the job in 2019. Benton County was fined more than $30,000 and cited for five safety violations after his death. | Photo courtesy Oregon AFSCME
“We’re still addressing the lower pay bands, but we’re also trying to correct the disparity that we’ve had in the C band for the last couple years,” Moore said.
The new contract will also add three new steps on top of the current 8-step scale, a 3% or higher cost-of-living adjustment in year two, and a market study in year three.
Moore said members in the C band said they weren’t willing to accept a package that left behind their lower-paid colleagues.
Members didn’t just go out on the cold, rainy picket line for themselves. “They did it for their peers and colleagues because they really believed in standing up for what was right,” bargaining team member Sarah Siddiqui said.
The union’s contract expired June 30, 2024, but the raises aren’t retroactive. Instead, members will get a $2,500 ratification bonus.
The local has voted down pay-for-performance proposals twice in the past, Moore said.
“The majority of our members have been staunchly against that for years, due to a lot of favoritism within the county depending on your relationship with your managers,” Siddiqui said.
Moore said workplace safety was one of the bargaining unit’s top priorities. Moore became chief steward in response to the 2019 death of Pete Neuman, a Benton County road maintenance worker who was killed on the job when he was crushed by a faulty logging skidder. Benton County was fined more than $30,000 and cited for five safety violations after Neuman’s death, including providing faulty equipment and not properly training employees.
The new contract requires that the county give the local quarterly lists of members who have completed required safety trainings. Moore said that in the past, managers have told AFSCME members that they have to skip trainings if there wasn’t someone available to cover their job during the training.
“Now we’ll have a way to actually track to make sure that the county is following through on what they need to,” Moore said.
