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Who are These Arbitrators?
Posted 7-22-2003
There are many aspects of
county government that have a profound impact on our operations but are
virtually unreported in the news. This month, I would like to describe a
process that dramatically impacts our budget -- negotiating with the
county's many collective bargaining units that cannot strike.
Every few years, the news
reports on our negotiations with the county's largest bargaining unit -- the
part of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) that represents the
more than 800 employees of Westmoreland Manor, the Area Agency on Aging, the
Public Works and Parks Departments, the Department of Public Safety's
telecommunications officers, and courthouse employees not working for the
courts and court-related offices. These negotiations are fairly high profile
because of the number of employees involved, and the fact that a strike
could adversely affect some operations. But besides the aforementioned group
of employees, the only other bargaining unit that can strike is made up of
caseworkers in the Children's Bureau, represented by Teamsters Local 205.
Another challenging
experience is the process with other bargaining units that are prohibited by
law from striking. They include: court and court-related employees (SEIU),
corrections officers (United Mine Workers), adult and juvenile probation
officers (independent union), assistant district attorneys and public
defenders (independent union), the park police (Teamsters Local 30), county
detectives (independent union), and the prison counselors (Teamsters 205).
With each of these groups individually, we first negotiate, but if no
settlement is reached, they all have the opportunity to have an arbitrator
determine a contract award.
Because of the potential for
arbitration, we rarely are able to reach agreements (though we did with the
corrections officers), and the decision that we (and you, the taxpayer) must
live with is made by an arbitrator. I certainly understand the theory behind
the process. Bargaining units that represent positions that affect public
safety, such as police and corrections employees, or the criminal justice
system cannot walk off the job and they are therefore given the option of
arbitration.
My issue is with the
arbitrators themselves. Once these individuals are certified by the
Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry they are eligible to a make an
"arbitrary" decision. That decision has an impact on the county's budget,
and we are left to deal with it with no recourse. The process requires two
of the three parties to sign the award agreement. So the arbitrator signs,
and if the union representative signs, the contract award goes into effect
even if we dissent. In my eight years as commissioner, I can only remember
one time that the bargaining unit did not sign and we did. In that instance,
the union leadership dissented because that particular arbitrator eliminated
longevity bonuses for future hires.
My problem is that no matter
the situation of the county's finances, these arbitrators, who often are not
even taxpayers here, seem oblivious. With a national economy sputtering,
hundreds of thousands of people losing their jobs and people feeling the
burden of property tax increases in virtually every school district in
Pennsylvania, the arbitrators keep handing out awards that exceed increases
in the cost-of-living or raises we are able to give management employees.
While individually, no one is
getting rich working for Westmoreland County, collectively payroll costs and
the associated benefit costs keep rising. We will be fortunate if health
insurance premium increases next year are 10 to 15 percent. Add that to all
the other costs of doing business, and you get a picture of why balancing
budgets while maintaining high levels of service is so challenging.
We have made many tough
choices, instilled competition among vendors in many areas, and offered
incentives like the early retirement program to reduce costs. But, the
"arbitration" process that sets much of our payroll costs is extremely
frustrating. I am not convinced that any of these arbitrators understand the
operations of county governments or public sector finance because they
appear to have a hard time grasping the concepts of stagnant revenues and
budget deficits. So, we, the taxpayers, are left shouldering the burden of
their decisions, and the county commissioners are forced to implement the
decisions in a financial landscape that only gets more difficult to
navigate. |
