A little give, take sparked settlement.

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

CORRECTION (ran 7/17/2006): City/Region: In a tentative agreement, the Eugene Water & Electric Board has agreed to lower the maximum annual out-of-pocket health care cost for union workers. A City/Region story on Page D1 Saturday used incorrect terminology in describing the health benefit.

One for you, and one for me.

That's the philosophy that appears to have led the Eugene Water & Electric Board and its union-represented employees to a tentative settlement on Friday, putting an end to an 11-day strike that began on the Fourth of July.

The two sides' bargaining teams emerged from a final session Friday morning with a tentative pact that traded something the union wanted - Veterans Day as a paid holiday - for something the union wanted but didn't get: retroactive pay.

The parties already had reached consensus on the bigger issue of health care benefits: EWEB maintains its general health plan for employees but agrees to reduce workers' maximum out-of-pocket annual deductibles by a third.

The tentative settlement still needs to be ratified, first by International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 659 members, and then by EWEB's five elected commissioners. But while those actions aren't expected until the middle of next week, union workers were slated to begin reporting for shift work Friday night, with most everyone back on the job by Monday morning.

The union's previous contract expired Dec. 31. After an impasse, EWEB in late May implemented its "last and best" offer, which included pay increases of up to 12.4 percent over the next three years. The provisions agreed upon Friday will be added to the contract language upon both parties' ratification.

Replacement workers hired by EWEB will be available for emergency work through today only, utility spokesman Marty Douglass said. EWEB is eager for its own workers to address a backlog of maintenance and improvement projects that were placed on hold during the strike, he said.

Union and utility leaders used the same word - "relieved" - to describe their feelings about the tentative settlement, and acknowledged that it will take some time for emotional wounds to heal.

"I can't say we're overjoyed with the settlement, but it's acceptable," said Ron Jones, the union's business manager. "We're looking to get things back to normal as soon as possible."

Douglass said the utility was intent on approving a contract "that treats employees fairly but balances their interests with the interests of our customers, and we think we did that." The pact is not expected to affect customer rates, he said.

EWEB estimates the annual cost of providing Veterans Day as a paid holiday to union workers at $61,000, and says providing lower maximum deductibles to workers will cost another $32,000 annually. Those figures could climb, however, if EWEB ultimately extends those benefits to nonunion workers as well.

Douglass said the utility may hire a consultant to help EWEB employees come to terms with resentments tied to the strike. "We want to be proactive, but we're not naive; we know things are going to be tense and touchy for a while," he said.

Jones said there are still "deep divisions" within the union, with frayed relations involving EWEB managers and the 25 union members who crossed picket lines.

Asked whether the contract gains justified going on strike, Jones quoted another union member who said, "We've already won, because we proved to ourselves and to everyone else that we're able to stick together."

Jones said EWEB and the union "had a remarkable relationship" when negotiating an initial contract two years ago, "and we want to return to that." He said he hopes EWEB's willingness to let a union representative sit on the utility's health care review committee will foster a collaborative approach.

Jones acknowledged that rising health care costs is a pervasive workplace issue. "My personal opinion is, national health care is probably the only solution, but that's not probably politically feasible anytime soon," he said.

Before the tentative settlement, the union sought but failed to persuade EWEB to submit to binding arbitration. Jones said the union plans to lobby state legislators to add utility electrical workers to the list of emergency responders, such as firefighters and emergency telecommunications workers, who are required by law to submit contract disputes to binding arbitration.

TENTATIVE SETTLEMENT

EWEB and its union reach conditional agreement on outstanding issues

Health care benefits: EWEB agrees to lower maximum annual out-of-pocket health care costs by a third, to $2,000 per employee and $4,000 per family, effective in 2007. A union representative also may sit on the utility's health plan review committee.

Veterans Day as a paid holiday: Effective in 2007.

Retroactive pay: None.

Bonus hazard pay: EWEB will pay a 5 percent salary premium to employees working in the utility's underground network - but only for those hours actually worked underground.

Overtime availability: Employees must work at least one hour of overtime for that work to count toward a requirement that employees respond to at least 25 percent of all overtime requests.

Holiday pay: If a paid holiday falls on a day when a worker is scheduled to work a 10-hour shift, the worker receives eight hours worth of holiday pay.