Union to take case to state labor board

The union has tried three times to get the matter approved by the salary board.
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
MERCER, Pa. -- A representative of the United Steelworkers Local 1355-04 said she has located a signed statement in which a county official agreed to binding mediation on reclassifying four employees in the county elections office.
Karen Seelbaugh, chief grievance person for the union, which represents some county employees, said Thursday's denial of the reclassification by the Mercer County Salary Board means the county "has not bargained in good faith." She said she expects the union to file charges before the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board.
Thursday was the third time the reclassification had came before the salary board. It died for lack of a second at an April 27 meeting and was tabled May 11 because Commissioner Olivia Lazor was out of town.
The commissioners and the county controller make up the salary board.
What was disputed
The union and commissioners had disagreed over whether the county had agreed to binding mediation. The union said it did, and this would have required the salary board to agree to the mediator's decision to reclassify the positions.
She said Friday she has obtained a Dec. 2, 2005, statement signed by Bill Boyle, the county's director of administrative services, agreeing to binding mediation and has sent copies to the commissioners.
Boyle is out of town until next week and could not be reached to comment.
Commissioner Olivia Lazor said Friday that if Boyle did indeed sign such a statement "the question is was he given permission to do so." Lazor and Controller Thomas Amundsen were the two salary board members whose abstentions defeated the motion to reclassify the four employees from technical, clerical and support Grade 4 to Grade 5, retroactive to Oct. 1, 2005.
Commissioners Brian Beader and Michele Brooks voted yes.
Lazor said that though she strives to give employees a fair wage and was torn about her abstention, she believed the reclassification would have had a domino effect that would have been costly to the county.
Money matters
Though the reclassification would have given a 45 cent-per-hour raise to the four, amounting to $819 per year, Lazor said that if all 86 of the other TC & amp;S employees took similar action, the cost would be $70,000 to $80,000 annually.
The county pays clerical workers at a rate which meets and even exceeds the average rate for this area, she said. She added she believes the mediator scored the job unfairly, for example, giving points for supervision even though "these women do not supervise anybody," as well as points for a "bad working atmosphere," even though the offices recently have been completely renovated.
Amundsen said he abstained because he was not a part of the mediation process on the reclassification.
He said he was not invited into executive sessions when the commissioners discussed the matter and, as a result, was unwilling to cast the deciding vote.