Months of Waiting, Still No Contract for Wayne Co. Workers (video too)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.13wham.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=f6668a42-807d-494f-94e5-3b877dd5dd99

Months of Waiting, Still No Contract for Wayne Co. Workers

Last Update: Apr 1, 2007 12:18 PM

Video Watch This Video: http://www.13wham.com/mediacenter/?videoId=183136

Sean Carroll (Lyons, N.Y.) -- They plow the streets, maintain the county buildings, and care for the elderly and poor. But, for 15 months, 800 Wayne County workers in the CSEA Local 859 have been waiting for a new contract and pay raises.

The employees include workers at the county nursing home, the highway department, and the 911 dispatchers who help save people's lives.

The workers can't strike, but their union also can't reach an agreement with the county on a new contract, so their salaries remain stalled.



Making ends meet without a raise has been tough for some, including Kelly Beaudette, a social welfare examiner for Wayne County.

" were born in 2004, so it's been tough without having a raise. Groceries are more expensive, gas is more expensive, property taxes right here in Lyons have increased substantially," she said. "My paycheck now is actually less than what I saw in 2005, because of union dues going up, health insurance has gone up."

The county's negotiator said mediation was a complete failure and negotiations are now over. The two sides sat down to the table about a dozen times.

The union admits leaving early twice, but the county says the union left early four times, so the two sides can't even agree on that.

Which makes Beaudette wonder how they'll ever agree on the 470-some changes the county wants to make by rewriting the current contract.

Those changes include less vacation time, two fewer holidays off, and enrolling all union members in the same healthcare plan.

The union likes the current contract, but wants wage increases for the next four years.

"They're miles apart from one another, and there needs to be a little give and take on both sides, Beaudette said. We're living paycheck to paycheck."

This weekend, the union and county, who stopped negotiating in August, sent fact-finding papers to Albany that argue their positions.

It could be another couple of months before the fact-finder issues an opinion, but that doesn't mean a deal is done.

They are only recommendations, and the two sides still have to agree with them.