4,000 Montana State Employees Strike to Protest Pay Raise Veto

More than 4,000 Montana government employees went on strike Thursday to protest the veto of a state pay raise and the National Guard was called out to maintain essential services.

The strikers include 90% of the state’s Highway Patrol troopers.

Republican Gov. Stan Stephens called the strike “self-defeating for everybody” and blamed Democratic lawmakers for falsely raising the hopes of state employees. He said he stood by his veto of a 60-cent hourly pay raise for most workers.

The Legislature failed to override the veto Wednesday night and union leaders called a strike.

A scattering of walkouts began at midnight. By 8 a.m., pickets appeared at most state office buildings near the state capitol in Helena. Staff at the women’s prison in Warm Springs struck at 11 a.m. and guards at the men’s prison in Deer Lodge followed an hour later after locking high-security inmates in their cells.

“Everybody’s out that’s supposed to be out,” Tom Schneider, executive director of the Montana Public Employees Assn., said.

The Legislature had little time to enact a solution. By law, Montana’s Legislature meets only four months every two years and the current biennial session was scheduled to adjourn Friday.

Col. Robert Griffith, commander of the Montana Highway Patrol, said 90% of the 167 officers normally on road patrol were on strike.

“We’re not doing any patroling,” Griffith said. “I guess we’re just attempting to respond to emergencies with our sergeants, lieutenants and captains.”

Victor Bjornberg, the governor’s press secretary, said 285 National Guard soldiers were activated Thursday, with 191 of them sent to the men’s prison to join 14 sent Wednesday night. The prison houses 1,170 inmates, or 300 more than its official capacity.

Guard personnel also went to the home for the aged in Lewistown and the state Veterans Home in Columbia Falls, Bjornberg said.

Stephens said at a news conference Thursday that state and union negotiators were continuing to meet. He said the two sides were about 10 cents an hour apart on wages and added that it was “puzzling to me that a small and insignificant difference like that would cause a strike.”

Starting pay for state workers ranges from $13,785 for a secretary to $19,233 for a civil engineer and $29,015 for a lawyer.