Members and leaders of the North Dakota Public Employees Association, an affiliate of AFT Public Employees, this month turned up the heat on the union's ongoing lobbying efforts in the state Legislature to secure a cumulative 8 percent pay increase in the state's upcoming fiscal biennium, 2005-07, which begins July 1. Union members and leaders came out in force Jan. 17 for the House appropriations subcommittee's first public hearing on state worker pay. The hearing, which coincided with NDPEA's lobby day, attracted more than 150 union activists. In making his case for the pay increase, NDPEA president Gary Feist cited the recent North Dakota Human Resource Management Services compensation report, which concludes that state worker wages "have fallen further behind the market over the last two years and now are 13 percent to 30 percent below market." The union's proposal is reasonable, he added, since the Legislature froze state employee pay for the 2003-05 biennium. In addition to 4 percent raises for each of the two years, the union has asked lawmakers to approve a $5 million equity pool to help close labor market gaps and to maintain the fully funded family health insurance plan.