WENATCHEE – Employees at Wenatchee Valley College set up an informational picket line outside the administration building today to demand a more favorable cost-of-living increase as part of their next collective bargaining agreement.

Ninety-eight WVC employees are among thousands of federally-funded employees who must reach an agreement with the Office of Financial Management in Washington by Oct. 1. The college is not directly involved in the negotiations.

The Washington Public Employees Association, which represents community college staff including WVCs, says contracts with the state system have resulted in an average cost-of-living increase of 1.67% per year over the past 25 years. But that hasn’t kept pace with real price increases for goods, housing and services, which average 2.6% per year.

“So we’re falling further and further behind,” says Wendy Glenn, a data engineer at WVC and a member of the union’s bargaining committee. “…They’re offering us 2% this year and 0% next year. And we’ve seen food prices almost double and housing prices skyrocket.”

“Classified personnel” include janitors, financial aid assistants, administrative assistants, groundskeepers and others – they form “the backbone, so to speak” of the college, Glenn says.

In recent years, employees have had to quit, take second jobs or go on welfare to make ends meet. An estimated 35 employees left WVC in the last year, she says.

Washington state law provides periodic cost-of-living increases for teaching staff at community colleges based on a formula based on the U.S. Consumer Price Index. There is no such guarantee for salaried staff at community colleges, although there is a similar provision for salaried staff at technical colleges.

“The academic part is funded,” says Glenn, “but as far as the staff that supports the colleges, that supports the teachers, that supports the institutions themselves – we would like to see legislation that shows that we are also tied to the cost of living.”