A tentative contract agreement was reached Thursday night between the Oregon University System and the SEIU, the union that represents university classified workers.

The new agreement includes a 3 percent salary increase retroactive to July 1, and a 3.2 percent raise that will take effect November 2008.

"It's wonderful news. This is the first time in over a decade that we have raises that actually meet inflation over a two-year period," said Maggie Neel, a secretary for the Oregon State University statistics department, and president of the university's subdivision of SEIU.

The agreement also maintains current health-care benefits for current and part-time workers, and the lowest pay rates for state university workers will be phased out by the two-year contract's end, according to a union news release.

Union members still must vote to ratify the agreement, and ballots could be in the mail Monday, Neel said.

The SEIU Local 503 represents about 3,800 workers in the state's university system.

At OSU, there are 1,280 SEIU workers, including librarians, office employees, food workers, and ship operations staff at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, said Jacquelyn Rudolph, the university's director of human resources.

Those workers support the educational goals of the university system, she added.

OSU regular staff - including classified employees, faculty members and managerial staff, but not counting temporary hires, students and graduate assistants - total about 4,200 workers, Rudolph said.

"We're really glad that we've reached an agreement. I think that everybody worked hard on both sides of the table," Rudolph said.

"Negotiations have been improving, and this time around, our relations were pretty good. Both sides were listening to each other," Michael Ellis, a carpenter at Portland State University, and the SEIU Local 503 bargaining chairman.

"I think the state's budget is a factor in how tough contract negotiations can be," he added.

Four years ago, the union didn't settle the contract until the night before it was set to go on strike regarding a wage freeze and decreasing health insurance benefits, Ellis said.

In 1995, the SEIU went on strike against the Oregon University System.