— from Colin Maycock, President Local 1849 —
Faced with further erosion of heath care benefits and low cost-of-living wage adjustments compared to senior management, county workers of Local 1849 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFL-CIO) rejected the County’s recent contract proposal.
A key disagreement is the County’s Health Savings Account (HSA) program. In 2012, County workers agreed to switch to a high-deductible health insurance program consistent with the County’s efforts to make substantial financial savings.
Although this change resulted in increased health care costs to workers and their families, County workers willingly assisted in order to continue providing quality service to the public and end further lay-offs. In practical terms, this meant County employees would partly subsidize the County’s budget, and was a hardship for some County workers.
The employees of Local 1849 willingly agreed to change plans, even though the Local was under contract with no obligation to accept. The resulting premium savings to the County were so great that the County agreed to fully cover the increased deductibles by making contributions to an employee HSA.
This was an agreement made in good faith, and a win-win proposal in hard economic times.
Since that agreement between the Local and the Administration, the County’s economic position has substantially improved.
The County’s own Auditor says the County’s revenue this year “outperforms both history and expectation.” A review conducted by the Union similarly finds the County’s financial position to be healthy and stable, with the flexibility to afford reasonable wage adjustments and continued funding of the HSA.
Yet the County Council is asking Union workers to accept a much lower cost-of-living increase than that handed to senior management, and reduced coverage for workers’ medical costs.
Union members see this as a breach of good faith, and an imposition of further hardship. Now that the Auditor tells us all that times are better, County staff — members of Local 1849 — are asking for a fair and equitable contract, demonstrating the same level of respect provided to senior management. Nothing more.
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If the above statements are correct, it implies a puzzling thing; that somehow cost of living is affected by your position within the hierarchy. Perhaps the county can explain why the “cost of living” is expected to rise at greater rate for management than for workers. I’ve always been under the impression that stores charged the same prices to everybody regardless of whether they were managers or workers.
Colin, just so I am not assuming anything, are you stating that there is a differance of actual payouts between upper and lower levels of county employees.. If this is so, who is making these decisions?
Transparency is key here.. Our community rests on equality and fairness.
Is this a simple breakdown of communication, or is there something afoul? Either way, this should be addressed immediately! We need all oars rowing in the same direction, otherwise, the taxpayer looses.
Which means ultimately, the county looses.
If our community loses faith in its governance and starts second guessing the direction of council, no one wins..
To all players, play ball!
Where can we find the terms of the proposed contract and compare it to the previous contract? The percentage of health care benefits covered, the amount paid into the HSAs, the amount of the proposed COLAs, and the retirement benefits schedules?