One union overwhelmingly rejects MRDD offer

The membership wants the bargaining team to return to negotiations.

AUSTINTOWN — Members of the 144-member Mahoning Education Association of Developmental Disabilities overwhelmingly rejected a contract offer Wednesday night.

The union represents teachers, workshop specialists, teachers aides, secretaries and case workers employed by the Mahoning County Board of Mental Retardation & Developmental Disabilities.

The offer MEADD was considering was called the board’s “comprehensive best offer” on economic issues such as wages and benefits, Superintendent Larry Duck said.

Karma Minkevitz, MEADD spokeswoman, said the membership also unanimously instructed the bargaining team to return to the negotiating table. Any new negotiations are up to a federal mediator to schedule, she said.

Minkevitz said the rejection was not solely about wages and benefits. “The bottom line is that the board’s offer shows its disregard for working conditions and contains confusing language and changes in terms and work conditions.”

Meanwhile, members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1143 at the MRDD board will now have to pay the full employee share of their retirement plan, but that contribution has been rolled into their wages.

The Mahoning County commissioners unanimously approved a three-year contract with 85 union members Tuesday. The workers ratified it last month by a 49-1 vote.

The contract, which is retroactive to Sept. 1, 2007, covers bus drivers, bus aides, vehicle mechanics, a truck driver, custodians and cooks.

Under the previous contract, the board paid the employer and the employee contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System. The employer contribution is 14 percent of the employee’s wage, and the employee contribution is 10 percent.

Under the new contract, the board will continue to pay the employer’s share, and the employees will pay their full 10 percent. However, that 10 percent will be added to their pay, and the board will withhold it from them to pay PERS.

“If we didn’t roll it into the wage, they never would have agreed to that,” Larry Duck, board superintendent, said of the union members. “Now, the wage is what it is.”

Monthly premiums are $415 for the single plan, $929 for a childless couple, $868 for a single parent with children and $1,323 for two parents with children.

The new contract provides 3 percent pay increases effective Sept. 1, 2008, and Sept. 1, 2009. However, during the first year of the contract, the workers will get only step increases based on the length of time they’ve occupied their jobs as prescribed by the previous contract, which expired Aug. 31, 2007, Duck said.

The employees now earn between $11.13 an hour for an entry-level bus aide and $20.74 an hour for the highest paid lead mechanic. These figures include the 10 percent rolled in for PERS.

The only net increase in cost to the board under the new contract is for the 3 percent pay increases this year and next, Duck said.

Over the life of the contract, the increase in wages will cost the board $383,267. If the employer’s PERS and workers’ compensation contributions are included, that figure rises to $467,394, Duck said.