Martin county workers want talks to stop until union question decided

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2007/aug/06/martin-county-workers-want-talks-stop-until-union-/

STUART — More than 200 Martin County employees will ask the Martin County Commission on Tuesday to stop negotiating an employee contract until a decision is made whether the in-house union or the Teamsters should speak for the workers. Steve Myers, Teamster representative, said the employees thought the Martin County Public Employee Union has not sought to find out what its members want in the contract.

The County administrators and attorneys, the MCPEU, the Teamsters, and the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission recently signed a “Consent Election Agreement,” mandating a PERC supervised election, Myers said. The vote would determine who should represent the 300 union-eligible employees during contact negotiations.

In March, the MCPEU voted to affiliate with the Teamsters Union, and have them conduct their contract negotiations. On May 14, in a letter signed by Gene Hoak, the president of the employee organization, said the employee group would not oppose the change from the in-house union to the Teamsters.

On Friday, Mavis Curley, an employee in the county engineering department and a spokesperson for the employees sent the five county commissioners a request that contract negotiations be suspended, pending the outcome of the election to be conducted by the state. Curley said the employees wanted the action because the in-house union had not exercised due diligence in finding out what their members wanted in the contract. She noted that the March voted constituted a vote of “no confidence” in the local union, and a direction to the union leaders to merge with Teamsters Local 769 headquartered in Vero Beach.

Curley added that the county’s withholding of recognition of the merger forced the involvement of the state in the labor issue. The state-supervised vote is expected to take place before Oct. 1, when the current contract expires.