WSU union rejects contract

By The Associated Press

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PULLMAN — Union employees of Washington State University have rejected a second contract proposal.

That leaves WSU as the only public college or university in Washington without a ratified contract for classified employees. The contract was supposed to be on the governor's desk Oct. 1 so it could be sent to the Legislature for consideration.

About 1,300 WSU workers in Pullman and at the university's other campuses across the state are without a contract, Tim Welch, spokesman for the Washington Federation of State Employees, said after Thursday's vote.

"We're weighing our options," Welch said Friday, when asked what the union would do next.

The rejected contract could have guaranteed the workers an across-the-board, 3.2 percent pay raise and a 2 percent lump-sum payment in 2006, he said.

The dispute centers on a union-security clause in the contract that called for employees who choose not to join the union to pay a "fair share" fee for reaping the benefits of union contract negotiations, Welch said.

Only about 200 of WSU's classified employees are union members, but all 1,300 classified employees got to vote on the proposal because all would be affected by it, Welch said. He speculated that many employees voted against the contract because they did not want to pay any of the new fee.

When the proposal fell 25 votes short of ratification last month, union representatives alleged WSU management interfered with the election. Some employees complained of union intimidation.

This time, the vote was held off-campus at a hotel in Pullman. Votes were also taken at sites in Spokane and in Western Washington.
 
All ballots were tallied in a locked room by three randomly selected representatives of the Washington State Labor Council. About 20 election observers, representing various interests, scrutinized the counting of the hand-marked paper ballots.

Torre Linne of Goldendale, Klickitat County, one of the three election officials, announced the results Thursday evening. A total of 342 ballots were cast in favor of the contract, with 502 against. There were 54 challenged ballots that did not figure in the final count.

By law, Welch said, classified workers must have a contract to receive a raise. The twice-defeated contract was hammered out over nine months of negotiations, Welch said, and the union and WSU officials alike were hoping for ratification.

The contentious union-security clause offered employees four options: to become a full dues-paying member; to pay a fee equivalent to dues, but not be a member; to not join the union, but pay a representation fee equal to a prorated share of collective-bargaining expenses; or to file nonassociation status based on religious objections with a fee equal to dues going to a union scholarship fund.