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Comments
Nexus
Employees need to understand that neither the commissioners nor the county administration care at all about them. Commissioners are doing whatever they can to satisfy their donors, and Huffer is knocking down well over $200K with his benefits to do one thing - be the front man for the commissioners. They don't care about the employees who actually deliver services to the citizens. All county leadership is doing is strengthening the union by their efforts to keep the employees underpaid. Employee relations are the worst they've ever been. No leadership at all at the county, and certainly no management.
BigfootLives
Nobody's wages are keeping up with the consumer price index. Inflation is rising; gas prices are climbing again and taking everything with it, and good luck buying, refinancing, or renting a home. And it is only getting worse. Some of the other beefs don't happen in anybody's world. 10 hours for a paid holiday instead of 8, no. Welcome to reality, in two years everyone else will be bellyaching about the two hours they don't get paid that the other guy gets. I get it, the county doesn't pay the market rate, and never has, why do you stay? And it's been this lousy for how long, and the union is going to fix it for you now, after all this time? If you believe that, keep your county job.
Besides, I don't think any of this is real. Joe Biden says inflation is racist and Bidenomics has given us the hottest economy ever. He said it himself, no joke. Right before he said he was a truck-driving university professor, civil rights protesting 9-11 first responder, and turned and shook hands with no one standing there, mumbled some more, and shuffled off stage.
Hibb
If the wages need to be increased, then so too in reciprocal fashion the retirement benefits need to be lowered. Public employees in Oregon enjoy quite the lucrative retirement program offered in PERS. Historically, the perk of PERS more than made up for the lower wages.
As for COLA, it has already been pointed out that everyone (of the 99% bracket)is not keeping up with the cost of living. Public employees cannot have it both ways and expect the rest of us to fold our hands and nod our heads in tacit agreement to their outrageous demands. If the county public employees want such increases, then we must demand pay performance reviews that will eliminate the majority of them that basically put in their days work and nothing more.
Lastly, I'm appalled that some of these employees have already taken to demonstrating. If they put as much effort into their work as they do in seeking higher wages, then such an increase might be warranted.
YamCoCan
Hibb, you're confusing current public retirement plans with tier 1 PERS. I don't know how many remaining county employees are tier 1, but it's nobody who started in the last 15 years. The benefits were already slashed for most of the public service workforce... which means that wages need to create enough incentive to attract and retain employees. If the county continues to argue against competitive adjustments, promising employees will start in YC and move on to neighboring agencies, counties, cities, or other entities where their work will be valued and better compensated. We are too close to Marion, Polk, Lincoln, and Washington County as well as Salem and other options for work to act like pay doesn't need to be competitive. Otherwise YC services will suffer. And nexus is right, much of the supposed-to-be leadership doesn't care either way.
MR. S
Immigrants will do the jobs men don't want to. And AI will do the jobs that women don't want to.
If nobody needs you, then what.
BigfootLives
Other than being a smart a** I have a point. Why do they work for the county?
...promising employees will start in YC and move on to neighboring agencies, counties, cities, or other entities where their work will be valued and better compensated...
Supply and demand will take care of these situations, but if the employees will put more effort into protesting than they would driving to neighboring agencies for better pay and benefits, why would Yamhill County budge?