09/28/12 State Employees Contract Negotiations Continue
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - State workers who saw a smaller paycheck over the past two years because of the state's budget woes are likely to see pay cuts restored under tentative contract agreements with the state after months of negotiating. Yet to be agreed to, however, is a contract on health benefits for about 60,000 state employees. The state has been negotiating with more than two dozen unions since May. The state has reached tentative agreements with 15 unions on pay, and is in arbitration with 10. Another union, Teamsters Local 117, is still at the bargaining table on pay. The proposed new contract would reverse the 3 percent pay cuts of the past two years. Separate health care talks are currently being done between the state and a coalition of the unions.