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County, CSEA at odds over contract
At a press conference held Friday, Richardson said he had been hired by the county to help "move forward with modern times; modern pay and benefit structures." Based on 22 years experience, Richardson said there are 160 questions that need to be answered when creating a draft contract proposal. That draft he calls a "working piece of clay." Negotiating with two CSEA (Civil Service Employees Assoc.) units, the Supervisory and the General Unit, has ceased said Richardson and there will now be a state fact-finding. The Supervisory Unit consists of about 50 employees, and the General Unit about 649. According to Richardson, out of six negotiations meetings, the General Unit representatives walked out of four. "They don't like the document," he said. "We heard 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' We heard 'No means no.' We never made it through the whole document because they kept walking out." Richardson said they asked for 3 1/2 percent raises for 2006, 2007 and 2008 and that nothing else be changed from the current contract (which expired in December 2005). He also claimed that when the CSEA filed "improper practice" charges against the County for "failure to negotiate," they all attended the conference and CSEA reps again walked out. "We never had a chance to negotiate," said Richardson. "Many of the times they walked out, they walked out in the first five minutes." One of several issues in contention is to eliminate Election Day and Columbus Day as paid holidays. The County would also like to cap vacation time (for newly-hired employees only) and have all of the employees switch to the County's self-insurance plan. With Richardson's figures, the County pays an annual average $9,662 for each employee of the CSEA Unit for not working (holidays, vacation and sick leave.) His figures also show an annual county savings of over $400,000 if all were enrolled in the County insurance plan. Richardson's position is that they can have raises, but not if it means hitting taxpayers again - "the money has to come from somewhere else." "We're talking about saving their jobs. That's not rhetoric." Referring to a recent Letter to the Editor in a local paper that criticized the county paying him $140/hour to negotiate the contracts, he said, "These 700 employees pay $280,000 a year to CSEA...I'm charging the County $15,000, no matter how long it takes. Why is that a foolish expenditure?" "Look at this document and then call me and tell me where it says, 'We're out to get the employee.'" Because the CSEA reps were not invited to the conference, they had to be contacted later for comment. From CSEA headquarters on Broad St. in Lyons, General Unit Vice President Linda Pearce said she "completely disagrees" that they have been unwilling to negotiate. According to Pearce, the CSEA reps went over the complete proposal line by line and met 11 times with the County negotiating team. "We walked out twice, not four times, and that was because insults were going back and forth." Pearce also says the CSEA was willing to accept a raise of 3 1/4 percent (not 3 1/2), but that it is indeed true they wanted nothing else changed. She said that they were willing to work on Election Day and Columbus Day, but wanted two "floating" holidays in return. The employees would keep all of their holidays, but the county would be able to remain open for business. As for the insurance, Pearce said that the employees should have a choice. "Many are unhappy with the self-insurance program." "The benefits have been bargained for for over 30 years and now they want to take them away. Our unit went in there to bargain in good faith." Not according to Richardson, who says that those "Contract Now" signs belong in front of the courthouse. Copyright
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