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Leave us out--we'll vote you out!

Contact:  Mark Beutler

              Director of Communications

               405.429.0533

 

May 13, 2008                                      
For Immediate Release:

 

“Leave us out—we’ll Vote you out”  

 

Oklahoma City – Members of the Oklahoma Public Employees Association (OPEA) are sending a direct message to state lawmakers:  “Leave us out—we’ll vote you out.”  OPEA members held a spirited but peaceful protest rally today on the south steps of the State Capitol.

 

 “We have seen our legislators pass corporate welfare packages on to professional sports associations, as well as benefits to the oil industry and tire manufacturers, to name just a few,” said Sterling Zearley, OPEA Executive Director.

 

“State employees are increasingly being asked to do more with less, and they willingly meet the challenges.  But enough is enough.  Employees are leaving state government in record numbers, creating a crisis in agencies and services.  Clearly waiting another year for a pay raise is not an option,” Zearley said.

 

Work loads are increasing throughout the state, while paychecks are eroding.  More and more workers are leaving public service and taking jobs in the more lucrative private sector.  As a result, those employees left behind are forced to carry an increasing burden as well as train new workers.  And in many cases those employees leave through the revolving door and the process begins again.

 

So far throughout this session, cries for additional compensation have fallen on deaf ears.  But with less than two weeks left before adjournment, OPEA members say they will not take “no” for an answer.

 

“There is an emergency in state government employment and the Rainy Day Fund must be tapped to provide relief,” Zearley said.  “‘There is no money’ is not an acceptable answer for us.  Not this time.”

 

OPEA hopes lawmakers will implement a long-term compensation plan to bring state employee compensation up to market.

 

“We have seen sporadic cost-of-living adjustments for nearly a decade,” Zearley said.
“State employees have received only three raises in nine years.  As a result the state is losing $85 million dollars a year in employee turnover.   We hope our lawmakers will put together a meaningful pay plan, one that is consistent and allows for retention of our state’s workforce.”

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Posted on Fri, May 16, 2008 by Mark Beutler

11 comments (Add your own)

1. Fed Up with Okla wrote:
Unless the LAW is changed(i.e. CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS are written into law)Okla. St. employees WILL NOT have a CHANCE of receiving the pay and benefits we deserve! Without CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS to back us,the SAME ludicrous debacle(i.e. picketing outside the Capital, etc.,)with the SAME result:FAILURE - will happen in 2009, 2010 and beyond! I've said this before(though no one seems interested)but if Okla. St. employees REALLY want BETTER pay & benefits, BETTER working conditions, BETTER quality of life, etc.,then MOVE TO ANOTHER STATE!!!( I am!)- or stay in Okla. and be YOUR OWN WORST ENEMY - YOUR Choice! Politicians can and will say ANYTHING, they will pander/posture to St.employees if it is politically expedient for them to do so. Ultimately however, it is the St. employees who will be the LOSERS! We have seen this happen countless times! If we have the STATE CONSTITUTION backing us up, NO politician can deny us without legal consequences! Sadly though,in Okla. I don't believe there will ever be a State Constitution that supports St.employees - particularly, since the Republicans are taking control of State Government! Bottom Line: If you want BETTER, LEAVE OKLAHOMA - ASAP!!!!!!!

Fri, May 16, 2008 @ 12:20 PM

2. mary wrote:
The rainy day fund will probably be used to bring in another pro basketball or football tem this time. But who will be able to go to the games not the people that will keep the tems here but the teachers who will have them removed from Ok because of bad seeds to our kids. Because of the drugs and you name it. Then Ok will be back in the 20's again. Come on Okla wake up and lets vote the people in Okla City out before its too late. Let me know and I'll get the first one started we can't wait till next year to do anything. Because the gas prices, food and you name it will not wait till next year to go up. So lets show the people in the city we mean business.

Fri, May 16, 2008 @ 1:06 PM

3. J wrote:
Please read the letter to the first letter to the editor in the OKlahoman today by a Mr Gred Clift. He wants to privitize state employment. I told him if he wanted to privitize state employment he could feed the inmates and care for the sick. I also invited him to Moore, OK one Saturday morning to leanr about state employment.

Sun, May 18, 2008 @ 9:55 PM

4. J wrote:
I hope OPEA responds to a letter in the Sunday paper on the editorial page. A private citizens states state employment shuld be privitized.

Sun, May 18, 2008 @ 9:57 PM

5. Darren wrote:
Someone needs to make the list of the names of those who voted agasint us having a raise and send that out to all state employees so that we would know who to vote out and keep the ones who voted for us to have a raise!

Mon, May 19, 2008 @ 10:29 AM

6. M.E.B. wrote:
Darren, I agree with you!

BTW, is there a way to get a written summery of the podcast and breakroom recording? All I have is dial-up and it will take over 4 hours to download both programs!. I'd really like to hear what both these gentleman have to say.

Thanks

Mon, May 19, 2008 @ 9:36 PM

7. Carol wrote:
If you want to know how they voted look in the political section and you can find how each legislator voted and if OPEA supported the bill.
If you don't like what you have, get active and change it. Getting to know every legislator in and around your district. Let them know how you feel and that you have the power to vote them out.
Then get the word out how they treated you at the capital. Then get someone in that knows you will keep track and will call directly when the pay raise and benifits bills come up and will vote FOR YOU NOT AGAINST YOU. But only you getting involved in them will get them involved in making you happy!

Tue, May 20, 2008 @ 12:13 AM

8. Tom Dunning wrote:
Will the Granite situation open legislators' eyes to the situation that DOC employees face daily? I'm sad that it takes such a dramatic occurance such as a deadly prison fight to raise awareness.

Legislators have been warned consistenly and for quite a long period of time of the consequences of not providing state employees w/ adequate compensation.

I'm afraid the Granite alarm bell will go unheard and that the threat to state employees will escalate.

Tue, May 20, 2008 @ 4:15 PM

9. wrote:
I've come to accept the lack of a pay raise this year despite severe inflation (26.1% year-over-year increase in the Economist commodity price index). The State of Oklahoma simply doesn't have any money, and I at least can hope for no diminution of benefits, which effectively means a raise in January, albeit directed entirely toward health benefits.

But today I hear that the Legislature leaders agreed to spend more money over the long term, borrowing with bonds for certain projects. Bonds encumber incoming funds, making less funding available for forthcoming priorities like prison expansion and reform or paying or even maintaining state employees. BONDS ARE A BAD IDEA in almost every case, and they are particularly bad now. The State must repay these bonds with interest, leaving less money to spend on essentials when times really get tough. With the deteriorating national economy, severely escalating prices, and mysteriously missing tax revenue, the State cannot afford these bonds--and neither can state employees.

WE MUST OPPOSE THESE BONDS. Regardless of whether and how they vote on State employee compensation, I WILL VOTE AGAINST ALL DISTINGUISHED MEMBERS OF THE STATE LEGISLATURE WHO DO NOT VOTE AGAINST THESE BONDS.

Wed, May 21, 2008 @ 1:20 PM

10. MEB. wrote:
(#9 wrote), So, are we still expecting a 5% raise in January? I thought that had pretty much evaported.

Thanks for filling us in on the bonds. I've never understood what they were exactly. I know my city has just been upgraded to some kind of bond so that supposedly, it means we have to pay less taxes here. Makes me wonder now....

Thu, May 22, 2008 @ 11:51 AM

11. Darren wrote:
They need to mention this on the news that State works have been asking for raises for years but we have been given nothing.

The people of Oklahoma has been hearing "State Workers are asking for another raise but people are assuming we have been getting those raises we have been asking for.

OPEA needs to say this on the news so that the people of Oklahoma will know we have been denied many times asking for a raise.

Don't assume just because we are asking for a raise we are getting it, and a lot of Oklahoma people are thinking that.

Thu, May 22, 2008 @ 12:05 PM

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