Court-Related Employees Yes; Correctional Facility Employees Say No to new Contracts
LOCK HAVEN – Clinton County is one for two so far as it works for new contracts with the two county employee bargaining units.
Chief Clerk Jann Meyers reported at Thursday’s commissioners meeting that court-related employees represented by Council 86, AFSCME, had given their approval to a new 4-year pact in a vote conducted on Tuesday of this week. Meyers said she was told the new contract was approved “overwhelmingly.”
The agreement was unanimously approved by the county commissioners. Highlights include a pay raise of 2 percent this year, 2.25 percent in 2019, 2.5 percent in 2020 and 2.5 percent in 2021. Meyers said there will be increased costs to employees for their health care, including a hike in deductible costs in contract years three and four. She called the pact “fair to the employees and the taxpayers.”
But Tuesday’s vote also saw county correctional facility employees and deputy sheriffs reject their county offer. Meyers said she was not informed as to vote totals. She said the county commissioners will decide what the next step is and board chairman Pete Smeltz said the county will “keep the public informed as we move forward.”
Meyers said about 140 county employees are part of the AFSCME bargaining unit, 65 of them under the court-related umbrella, another 75 or so part of the correctional facility group.
In a related action, the commissioners gave their approval, as part of the county salary board, to a 2 percent raise to applicable county employees not covered by AFSCME. The hike is retroactive to January l. The commissioners had held off on any pay hike until there was a bargaining agreement. About 140 county employees will be the beneficiaries of that 2 percent hike.
The county’s previous contract, a 4-year accord, had ended as of December 31, 2017. It had provided union members a 3 percent hike in each of the four years, the same percentage increase given to applicable non-union employees over the same four year period.
