State employees plan to join Oklahoma teachers in walking off the job next month if lawmakers don't give them a pay raise.
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.
___