By Rachel La Corte
The Associated Press
OLYMPIA — Gov. Chris Gregoire has called the state’s unions back to the bargaining table in reaction to the state’s growing budget deficit.
Gregoire issued a proclamation Thursday asking to reopen existing contracts that run through 2011 for 25 unions. The unions don’t have to agree to anything, and the state can’t unilaterally impose any changes.
“The financial situation for our state is significant and will continue to require all of us to work together,” Gregoire said in a statement issued Friday.
Gregoire’s budget director, Marty Brown, has also determined the eight collective bargaining agreements and arbitration awards submitted to the state on Oct. 1 that cover 2011 through 2013 “are not feasible financially” and sent a letter to Gregoire on Thursday saying those previously negotiated labor costs can’t be included in her budget proposal.
The unions will have to return to bargaining to figure out a different contract, said Glenn Kuper, spokesman for the governor’s budget office.
Of the eight unions affected under that 2011-13 renegotiation, there’s some smaller contracts that affect mostly ferry system unions, but the big cost is a contract with SEIU 775, the home health care workers. That contract would cost the state about $120 million over the biennium, Kuper said.
“Even with the ones that didn’t cost us much, we still need to lower costs,” he said.
David Rolf, president of Local 775, said he was “blindsided” by Gregoire’s decision.
“Instead of balancing her budget on the backs of the lowest-paid workers in the state, I think the governor should call the Legislature into special session tomorrow,” he said.
More than a dozen state unions, including the Washington Federation of State Employees, are still negotiating with Gregoire for the upcoming two-year contract.
“We’re still at the table,” union spokesman Tim Welch said. “We never left.”
He said the union feels it already gave up a lot the last time the state rejected already-negotiated contracts because of financial issues in late 2008.
“There isn’t much of anything left to cut,” he said, noting that the federation went without cost of living increases, among other things.
Welch said that the union returns to the bargaining table with the state on Nov. 30.
Gregoire’s proclamation was issued after a new state revenue forecast drained another $385 million from the current year’s state budget, which runs through June 2011. The 2011-2013 deficit is pegged at about $5.7 billion out of a roughly $33 billion general fund.
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AP writer Curt Woodward contributed to this report.
