City union OKs freeze on pay raises.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

The city of Eugene and its smallest labor union on Monday announced that Hult Center for the Performing Arts stagehands will not get a pay raise for a year, a concession sought by City Manager Jon Ruiz to help balance the city budget.

The International Association of Theatrical and Stage Employees Local 675 represents 11 employees out of a 1,550 city work force.

Members agreed to a three-year contract with no pay raise in the first year starting in July, but they will get a 2.5 percent pay increase in the following fiscal year. In the third year, either the union or the city will be able to reopen talks on wages and benefits.

"We were pleased because we knew beforehand that (city bargainers) were going to ask for a pay freeze," said John Loomis, a member of the IATSE executive board. "We were concerned that they would ask us for a pay cut."

To plug a projected $12 million gap in the city budget, the city is cutting back on expenses and Ruiz is seeking $5 million in personnel savings, asking employees to consider wage concessions, including giving up cost-of-living pay raises for a year.

So far, talks with the city's two largest unions - the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 1724, and the Eugene Police Employees' Association - have not produced an agreement.

Rather than give up a previously agreed-to 3.8 percent cost-of-living raise in the fiscal year starting July 1, AFSCME representatives proposed that employees take six days of unpaid furlough, said Rick Henson, the union's business representative.

Workers represented by AFSCME earn between $24,398 and $64,320 a year, generally much less than other types of city employees, such as managers, Henson said.

"When you are talking wage freeze, a manager who makes $100,000 a year can handle it a lot easier than someone making $24,000 a year," he said.

AFSCME bargainers also proposed that employees collaborate with city officials on ways to make city government less costly, Henson said.

But city officials re-jected the offers and instead "actively pushed for additional takeaways, and chose to invest staff time in evaluating the possibility of forcing us to take mandatory furloughs by simply implementing them," Henson and other AFSCME bargainers wrote in an e-mail to members.

In an interview, Henson said the union would discuss efficiencies with city managers. "Hard times are really the best time for this worker- management collaboration," he said. "We have offered it, but so far the city has not taken us up on this."

Ruiz said in a written statement Monday that the union's initial proposal of six days of mandatory furlough represents "a big step toward closing the budget gap" but "does not represent a full or ongoing solution to a growing problem."

"I was disappointed and surprised to hear of the AFSCME board's decision to rescind that offer and conclude our discussions toward a joint budget solution," Ruiz said.

Ruiz said the city's executive team is committed to doing everything it can to resolve the budget challenge while maintaining services and incurring no employee layoffs. "We believe most employees understand the situation the entire community is facing and are willing to share in a solution that avoids layoffs," Ruiz said.

Police department employees represented by the EPEA are eligible for pay raises between 3 percent to 4.5 percent. EPEA representatives could not be reached for comment on Monday.

A new contract between the city and the International Association of Firefighters Local 851 is nearly done. Union president Scott Olmos on Friday said the union had agreed to forgo a cost-of-living raise for the year starting in July.