PORT ANGELES — The Clallam County commissioners unanimously rejected Tuesday a mediator’s proposal but said they are willing to continue working with Teamsters Local No. 589.
Both county and union officials said that the county and its largest union are close to settling a new labor contract that has been in the works for 22 months.
After voting to reject a mediator’s proposed settlement, the three commissioners postponed action on three related resolutions to allow more discussion with labor attorney Akin Blitz and the county’s bargaining team.
“If it is in fact that we’re pretty close, I’d say let’s have our bargaining teams go back and see if they can close the gap sooner rather than later,” Commissioner Jim McEntire said.
Said union representative Dan Taylor: “That would be my hope as well.”
The final sticking points in the lengthy contract negotiations are contained in two of the five recommendations made by Page Garcia, Public Employment Relations Commission mediator.
Garcia proposed Aug. 27 that the county pay the union $33,000 for settled grievances and reimburse the Teamsters’ 200 county employees for a one-year cost of living raise that was diverted into employees health care plans as part of an earlier concession agreement.
The second recommendation stemmed from an unexpected $500,000 that the county received from the state Legislature for the extraordinary cost of the second Darold Stenson double-murder trial.
Commissioners voted against the proposal for those two reasons.
Teamsters members voted to accept the mediator’s proposal as recommended.
After the vote to reject the mediator’s proposal, McEntire moved to postpone action on three related resolutions.
The resolutions were to:
■ Ratify tentative agreements for Teamsters’ labor contract with desirable amendments.
■ Declare the board’s intentions on labor and employee relations, including the settlement of pending grievances.
■ Authorize discretionary 2012 medical benefit cost concession fairness restoration.
“I just think it’s bad business, having rejected the mediator’s proposal, to kind of conduct negotiations in the public,” McEntire said.
“I think we need to remand that back to the bargaining table.”
Commissioner Mike Chapman seconded the motion, adding that “to me it seems like by postponing we’re really remanding it back to the bargaining team.
“In my opinion, we only should have dealt with the mediator’s proposal today.”
Commissioner Mike Doherty made a case for keeping the contact talks geared toward a compromise.
“I personally don’t like either side saying it’s all or nothing when there are some ways to get to the compromise, or do some things a different way,” Doherty said.
Doherty said that the county now has fewer employees doing more work.
Clallam County has shed 41 full time positions, mostly through attrition, since the recession began in 2008.
All three commissioners have raised concerns about shrinking revenue from the state and federal government.
“I think that we need to get to some form of stability and we need to do that rather quickly,” Taylor said.
“We are really very close here. I think we should focus on the closeness and not the distance.”
County Administrator Jim Jones agreed that the sides are “very, very close.”
“I believe the issue is more form than it is function,” he said.
Jones said the two contested items in the mediator’s proposal have no place in labor negotiations and should be dealt with separately.
Taylor countered that the two items are indeed appropriate for bargaining, as the mediator who made the recommendation comes from the Public Employment Relations Commission.
“Having said that, it doesn’t necessarily mean they have to be (part of the contract talks),” he said.
Clallam County has already settled four-year labor contacts with its seven other unions.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5072, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
