Lawrence Co. AFSCME approves contract

NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- Lawrence County workers avoided an Election Day strike by accepting a one-year contract.
Members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2902 voted Wednesday afternoon to take a $550 or 2.1 percent raise, whichever is higher, for 2004.
The union and county officials have been in contract talks since December 2003, when their contract expired. Employees will be paid retroactively for the nine previous months of the year.
AFSCME represents employees in these offices and departments: treasurer, controller, assessor, voter registration, maintenance, switchboard, children and youth services, mental health/mental retardation and veterans affairs.
Employees also will get a $100 signing bonus and change their health insurance to Highmark Select Blue.
Vote options
Fifty-four union members voted on the one-year option, a two-year contract that gave them $650 or 2.1 percent pay increases for 2004 and 2005, or a third option to deny both.
The vote was close with 23 voting for the one-year contract, 19 voting for the two-year deal and 12 voting for neither.
Dan Grove, AFSCME union representative, told employees he thought this was the best offer they were going to get from the county. He added that if they went back to negotiations, he feared the county would pull its offer to make any pay increase retroactive.
"I believe [the vote] is the lesser of two evils," Grove told employees.
The union members had threatened to strike on Election Day -- Nov. 2 -- if they could not come to a contract agreement.
Grove told employees that they would not be voting on the county's request that they take off four days without pay. Commissioners have asked the unions to agree to a day off every two weeks without pay to help the budget crunch. The county is facing about a $1.3 million deficit by year's end.
"We're not going to put AFSCME's blessing on this. I'm 99 percent sure they [commissioners] have a right to do a shutdown. Why do we need to bless it? Maybe to soften it up for the public," he said.
The county's other union, Construction & amp; General Laborers Union 964, also refused to vote on the unpaid days.
Grove said there would be no break in negotiations, and they would immediately start working on the 2005 contract.
cioffi@vindy.com