PORT ANGELES — Clallam County and its largest union have apparently reached an agreement on a new labor contract after more than 20 months of good-faith bargaining.
Commissioners Jim McEntire and Mike Doherty voted Tuesday to approve a four-year contract with Teamsters Local 589.
The action is contingent on the union ratifying and executing the same agreement prior to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 22.
Teamsters represent about 200 county employees.
The agreement includes a pay freeze for Teamsters members until July 2016.
That’s when other county employees who took a 5 percent put cut in January will catch up with their Teamsters colleagues on the salary scale through a series of cost-of-living raises.
If the Teamsters local ratifies the agreement prior to the deadline, Clallam County will have labor deals with each of its eight unions.
In his motion to approve the contract, McEntire said the board’s ratification prior to union ratification would not establish precedent.
Chapman opposed
Commissioner Mike Chapman voted no, citing issues he had with the process and timing of the deal and his overriding interest to “hold the line” on county employee wage growth.
“We’re seeing a really big gap between government workers and the private-sector workforce,” Chapman said in a telephone interview.
“We really do need to hold the line with the county workforce until our budget stabilizes.”
Last week, Doherty and McEntire passed a $33.2 million general fund budget for 2015 that uses $707,528 in reserves.
Chapman voted no on the budget, objecting to a $482,559 medical benefit refund that most employees will receive today for concessions made in 2011.
“We don’t even know how much more to the deficit this [Teamsters contract] is going to add,” Chapman said.
“We can’t just continue to add money to employees with no regard for how it’s going to impact our budget down the road.”
Administrator: No impact
County Administrator Jim Jones said the ratified labor agreement would have no significant impact on the 2015 budget because of the pay freeze.
The contract would be retroactive to last January and run through December 2017.
In other board action, commissioners unanimously confirmed and approved tax rates and charges for the Lake Sutherland Management District.
Lake Sutherland property owners voted overwhelmingly last summer — 88.2 percent to 11.8 percent — to extend the 10-year-old district another decade for continued eradication of Eurasian milfoil from the 300-acre lake west of Port Angeles.
Property owners who have access to the lake will continue to pay $50 per parcel per year to control the invasive underwater plant.
No formal objections were submitted for the special assessment tax roll, said Cathy Lucero, Clallam County noxious weed coordinator, in a public hearing.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
