Oregon Lottery: Oregon Lottery employees reject call to unionizeA union drive at the Oregon Lottery has been rejected by a solid majority of agency employees.
The state Employment Relations Board, which tallied the votes this week, reported that 56.5 percent of the people casting ballots voted to go without union representation. The Service Employees International Union, or SEIU, won the support of 43.5 percent of the workers.
Ninety-six percent of the 307 workers in the proposed bargaining unit cast ballots.
Ron Youngquist, a lottery worker from Salem who opposed the union, said the results vindicated people who insisted on an up-or-down vote on the union drive.
But Don Jones, a union supporter, said lottery managers influenced the election by dangling a wage increase in front of workers.
Lottery Director Dale Penn said he was just following the normal budget process when he proposed a 2006-07 wage package in April and May.
