Fayette union rejects ‘last, best’ contract offer; strike possible
Fayette County’s government union voted down the county’s “last, best and final” offer Friday, sparking talk of a strike among employees. Rose Cindrick, business agent for Service Employees International Union, Local 668, said the next step in the process is to ask the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board to discern which employees in the union are considered court related and which are county related.
The court employees hope to go to binding arbitration, while the county employees could call for a strike.
The union local’s hourlong meeting Friday was often boisterous, and loud voices were heard outside the county courtroom where 123 of the union’s 147 employees voted.
After the employees voted to turn down the county’s offer of 5 percent raises for this year and the next two, many walked off chanting “SEIU.” The vote was 76 against the proposal to 47 for it.
Cindrick said she thought the county commissioners were offering the 5-percent raises for each of the next three years on a limited basis only. She said she expected that the commissioners would go back to their previous offer of 14 percent over three years if the 15-percent offer was rejected.
The two sides reached that agreement early last week after the county’s negotiator told the union the county could go no higher than 14 percent over three years. The county negotiator later returned, upping the offer by 1 percent. The SEIU bargaining team subsequently recommended the offer to its membership.
Cindrick said negotiators thought it was a “fair middle ground” between the 12 percent the county initially offered its union members and the 19 percent the membership had requested.
While the union representatives said they are willing to hear another offer from the county, Cindrick said she felt it unlikely that the county was going to offer more.
“And if the commissioners don’t have another offer, the membership is indicating they want to strike,” she said.
Cindrick said it could take a week or more to make certain which employees are court workers and which are considered county workers. The difference between the two is that a judge can order court workers back to their jobs if they walk out. County workers are permitted to continue with their strike as other workers in the private sector.