Children's bureau strike enters second month

Sixteen supervisors are handling the caseload of 40 striking caseworkers.
GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Officials say a monthlong strike by children's bureau caseworkers has not hurt Westmoreland County's ability to protect abused and neglected children, but a union spokesman disagrees.
A contingency plan to handle the bureau's workload is working, said county commissioner Tom Balya.
"You have a lot of experienced people up there who can handle it," Balya said.
Each of the bureau's 40 caseworkers oversees an average of 17 families. Since the walkout, 16 supervisors have handled the entire caseload.
"They know full well that caseload is not being handled as it should be," said union representative William E. Lickert Jr.
Teamsters Local 205 walked off the job Oct. 12 because of a lack of progress in contract talks. The main stumbling blocks in the negotiations are health-care costs and sick time.
County proposal
The county offered a 4 percent salary increase retroactive to Jan. 1, with 3 percent raises for each of the next three years. Caseworkers' starting salary is about $29,000 per year, county records state.
The proposal also would cut sick time from 15 to 10 days annually, and workers would have to pay 5 percent of their health-care premiums.
Lickert said the union has not received a response to its counterproposal, which he did not detail.
The workers have lost more than 22 days of wages so far, picketing in Greensburg and at Balya's home.
Many striking workers said the bureau was understaffed even when they were on the job and that stress is part of the reason they feel the county is treating them unfairly in the negotiations.
The bureau's most recent statistics show caseworkers investigated 1,983 reports of abuse and neglect in 2003, nearly 300 more than in 2002.
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