State offers 1 percent base pay increase to union workers

DES MOINES - State negotiators offered a 1 percent across-the-board pay raise for each of the next two fiscal years Monday to members of two separate employees unions who are seeking higher compensation levels under a new contract that would take effect next July 1.

Janet Phipps, director of the state Department of Administrative Services who is leading the state negotiating team, said the state is offering a fair proposal to its union workers in the latest round of talks on a new two-year collective bargaining agreement given the current financial realities heading into a new biennial budgeting cycle.

'We have a tight budget overall as far as state government is concerned, but I wouldn't offer anything that the state couldn't afford,” Phipps told reporters after presenting a counter proposal to members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 61 that included some requested benefit concessions.

The state's proposal to AFSCME again asked that union employees pay 20 percent of their health insurance premiums - a change state negotiators also sought two years ago that was rejected in an arbitrator's binding ruling. The state's proposal this time asks that all employees pay a higher share of their insurance premiums and health costs with a possible offset of $111 a month for participating in a wellness program.

AFSCME workers in line for wage 'step” adjustments in their pay grades could get 2 percent yearly increases - instead of the current 4.5 percent - while members of the State Police Officers Council (SPOC) would be in line for 3.5 percent yearly 'step” increases along with 1 percent across-the-board pay hikes on July 1, 2015, and again one year later.

'I think everybody ought to contribute,” Gov. Terry Branstad told reporters Monday.

'I've been on record for a long time in feeling that everybody ought to have some skin in the game” by paying a share of their health insurance premium as a way to help control costs.

The governor noted that SPOC members agreed to pay 20 percent of their health insurance premiums under the current contract and the state implemented a similar requirement for its non-contract employees.

Earlier this month, AFSCME negotiators proposed that their nearly 19,000 state employee members receive 2 percent pay increases every six months beginning July 1, 2015, for the next two fiscal years - a graduated pay schedule that would equate to a 3 percent yearly increase but would bump up their wage bases by 4 percent for each fiscal year. AFSCME members, who did not receive an across-the-board pay increase under the current contract that runs through next June 30, proposed no changes in their current health insurance benefits under the new labor agreement.

AFSCME Council 61 President Danny Homan declined to comment at Monday's open session. State and union negotiators will reconvene in January behind closed doors to hammer out an agreement to replace the current contract that is set to expire next June 30. Both sides eventually will go to binding arbitration on unresolved issues if a voluntary agreement can't be worked out in the coming months.

According to a fiscal analysis made by the state Department of Management, the cost of providing the state proposal to all state employees - both contract and non-contract - would be an additional $190 million for the two-year period. Approving the AFSCME position and providing the proposed wages and benefits to all state employees would total $273 million in fiscal 2016 and an additional $250 million the following fiscal year, according to state estimates.

Fully funding the SPOC contract offer would cost the state an additional $10 million, while the state's counter offer to SPOC carried a $3.5 million price tag, according to the state Department of Management. No break down was available for the projected cost of funding the AFSCME offer or the state counter offer to AFSCME members only.

Earlier this month SPOC members proposed across-the-board pay increases of 4 percent for fiscal years 2015 and 2016. They also requested that the one-time bonus pay totaling 2 percent that they received under the current contract be rolled into their salary base before the new proposed raises are applied to their yearly pay, however, that provision was not included in the state's counter offer.

'That was bargained before. That's done,” said Phipps in a brief interview after Monday's talks.

SPOC executive director Sue Brown said the 590 members of the bargaining unit made up of Iowa State troopers, special agents with the Division of Criminal Investigation and the Division of Narcotics Enforcement, state fire inspectors and agents, Iowa conservation officers, and Iowa park rangers believe the proposal they made to state negotiators earlier this month was 'very reasonable” and they hope it is taken seriously during upcoming contract talks.

'The officers have given up much in times of need, such as taking furloughs, taking little or no raises and raising their contributions to health insurance,” Brown said in a statement. 'These officers have now fallen behind when you compare their across-the-board increases over the last decade to the cost-of-living increases and when compared to the average increases that other Iowans have received.

'Now that the state has a Aaa bond rating and the economy is improved, it is time for the state to make up for some of the losses these officers - who risk their lives everyday protecting and serving the citizens of Iowa - have taken in the past several years,” Brown added in her statement.