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A Successful Vote
Posted 10-8-2006
An important
vote recently took place in Westmoreland County, and it wasn't even
Election Day. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Locals
1199P and 668, which represent about 1,000 county workers, voted to
accept a new five-year labor pact. After nearly 10 months of
negotiations (and one rejection of an agreement) the contract was
approved by a 351-234 vote.
The
acceptance of the contract was important for many reasons, the most
significant being that we prevented the transfer of half of Westmoreland
Manor's 400 residents to other facilities in the region. If the union
had rejected the final offer and given us formal strike notice, we would
have immediately started the process of relocating residents. Our
management staff and contracted nursing help, along with any SEIU
members who may have crossed a picket line, would only have been able to
care for 200 residents. In the past, other county workers had filled in
at the Manor during strikes. But modern policies regarding working with
healthcare consumers restrict unlicensed people from providing care. So
a potentially traumatic, and certainly disruptive, move was averted.
I truly
appreciate the union's leadership and members for recognizing the
county's position and voting to accept this deal. The changes we
requested, such as a small contribution toward the cost of healthcare
coverage and a modification of sick time policy for new hires, were not
excessive. Besides a contribution each pay for the healthcare premium
($8 per pay for individuals and $22 per pay for a family that escalate
slightly each year of the contract), we agreed to an annual deductible
of $100 per individual and $200 per family. There are also some
increased co-pays for prescription drugs and emergency room visits that
will take place in later years of the contract.
Altogether,
by the end of the contract employees should be paying about 10 percent
of the county's total cost for their healthcare. The contributions
towards healthcare in this contract are comparable to what the Teamsters
Local 205 agreed to pay after a 59-day strike last year and what the
county's nonunion employees began paying on July 1, 2006.
The change
in sick time policy for new hires now allows an SEIU member to earn five
days per year for his or her first five years of employment. In years
six through 10, their members will earn 10 sick days per year. After 10
years of service, they will earn 15 days like the current members. While
those numbers may seem high for those of you who work in the private
sector, getting the union to agree to any change in sick time policy was
significant. The reality in government is that most changes here are
incremental and often difficult to implement.
As with all
negotiated labor deals the county agreed to some changes too. We agreed
to defer the implementation for the healthcare contributions until
January 2007 and a $250 signing bonus. But rather than a retroactive pay
increase back to January 2006, we agreed to start their pay increases on
October 1, 2006.
I generally
dislike the idea of a signing bonus, because the real bonus of working
for Westmoreland County is job security. Unlike the private sector,
there is never the threat of county jobs being moved to another state or
overseas. That fact in itself is a real bonus. But sometimes we have to
agree to things we don't completely like to get a deal finalized. And
after paying no raises for nine months, the signing bonus' impact on the
budget was not as much as raises back to January would have been.
As with any
negotiation neither side got completely what they wanted, but that is
what genuine bargaining is all about. If we had come out of these
negotiating claiming total victory the union would have felt slighted,
and if they would have had us cave in on our demands, the commissioners
would have appeared soft. As it is, it is a win for taxpayers because
slowly but surely, we are bringing the work environment in county
government in line with today’s realities.
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