MERCER COUNTY Verland union hits picket lines in dispute

Health-care costs are the stumbling block to reaching a settlement.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Unionized employees of The Verland Foundation Inc.'s Mercer County facilities hit the picket lines at 6:30 a.m. today in a contract dispute.
The Verland Foundation, a nonprofit agency, provides services for mentally and physically disabled adults and has facilities in Sewickley, Hermitage and Sharon. It operates 10 group homes.
Verland officials were unavailable this morning for comment on the strike.
Pickets appeared at 6:30 a.m. at the foundation's group home at 687 Hasenflu Drive here and a short time later at the foundation's training facility at 309 Ohio St. in Sharon.
The 18 counselors and aides employed at the two local facilities are represented by United Steelworkers of America Local 1324-20.
Jennifer Rodgers, union president, said health-care benefits are the stumbling block to reaching agreement on a new contract.
The union's old pact expired in October 2003 and employees had been working under an extension of that agreement, said Alice Keck, union secretary.
Health care
Rodgers said the company wants employees to pay three times what they are now contributing for monthly health-care premiums.
Employees already are paying $42 a month for family benefits, and the company wants to raise that to $126, Keck said.
The company did offer what workers considered to be a fair wage increase, but with a tripling of their health-care costs, the employees would still be losing $1.06 per hour, Keck said.
Rodgers said workers did offer to double their health-care contribution, but the company declined.
She said that the union is willing to resume negotiations at any time but that no meetings had been scheduled.
Separate contract
The strike doesn't affect the foundation's Sewickley group home, because employees there have a separate contract, Rodgers said.
Verland's group home on Hasenflu Drive houses eight residents who are transported daily to the Ohio Street training center in Sharon. Another eight clients from the surrounding community attend that center as well, Keck said.
gwin@vindy.com