State employees to join teachers in walkout for better pay

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - State employees plan to join Oklahoma teachers in walking off the job next month if lawmakers don’t give them a pay raise.

The Oklahoman reports the Oklahoma Public Employees Association decided Saturday that state workers will strike if more than $213 million in pay raises aren’t approved by April 2.

The decision by the employees group comes after the Oklahoma Education Association, the state’s largest teacher’s organization, announced plans for a work stoppage April 2 if lawmakers don’t approve a $6,000 pay raise by April 1.

OPEA has endorsed a measure calling for a $71 million state employee pay raise this year, but the legislation was not heard in a legislative committee and it isn’t being considered.

Neither teachers nor state workers have received across-the-board pay raises since 2008.

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Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com