A few months ago, the City of St. Helens employees voted to form a union. Their purpose being to insure job security, and protect themselves from a less than responsive management.    The City Administrators were not happy with the thought of entering into any sort of negotiations with their employees. They were, however, forced to do once a Union was formally organized. 

The City has now given their employees a so called final offer. 

The Union wants are quite simple.  They want the same overtime system for their employees as they have always had.  They also want to keep their same insurance coverage.  Employee wage increases are approximately 1% for two years (a much lower increase than our inflation rate of close to 4% a year).  The City's position is to try and  give their employees less than they have now.  City Employees don't earn anything near the wages of city managers.   City managers earn double or triple the salary that workers get. 

Evidently the City Administration is asking their employees to make sacrifices; sacrifices not shared with upper management.   They want their workers to accept deteriorating work conditions, and to put in extra time without fair compensation

All that City workers now ask is that they be listened to and treated fairly.