Kansas – State Employees Have New Union Clout

Topeka, Kansas

Preserve Step-based Pay | KOSE members attend a June session of the Steve Employee Pay Plan Oversight Commission to protest an attempt to implement merit-based pay.

A major ruling of the Kansas Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) consolidating small units into larger ones grouped by occupation, and allowing the merger of local affiliates of AFSCME and the American Federation of Teachers, means more power for some 14,000 executive branch state employees.

"This is a new day - a great day - for Kansas and state employees," says Gerald Raab, an environmental technician for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and president of the new entity, named the Kansas Organization of State Employees (KOSE). It was automatically recognized as the certified bargaining agent for six of the 17 newly formed units. All non-supervisory, non-confidential classified executive branch employees (exclusive of those in higher education) are eligible to join.

Already leveraging their KOSE membership, state employees have met with officials to air their concerns. In August, KOSE corrections officers met - for the first time in a neutral setting outside the Department of Corrections - with corrections officials about staffing and other safety issues following a serious assault on a prison employee.