PORT ANGELES — Representatives of the four unions that represent about 88 percent of the city’s staff have told city officials they won’t renegotiate their contracts to remove the cost-of-living raises set for next year.
Port Angeles city officials had requested the raise, intended to offset the rise in cost of consumer goods and services, be taken out of the contracts in order to offset shrinking revenue sources attributed to the recession.
By Tuesday, each union had given the city their response.
City Manager Kent Myers said the city will make the same request again, if the state of city finances will require layoffs next year.
“We consider this to be an initial decision on their part,” he said, “and as we proceed throughout the budget process, we may go back to them, dependent upon how serious budget cuts are, in the next four to six weeks.”
Myers added, “We hope that’s not their final position as we proceed through the budget process.”
Eliminating the raise, which will be about 2 percent next year, would save the city $400,000 in 2010, city Human Resources Manger Bob Coons said.
More receptive later
Lt. Jake Patterson, Port Angeles firefighter and International Association of Fire Fighters Local No. 656 vice president, said the union may be more receptive to the city’s request later this year.
He said Thursday that at this point in the year, it is too early in the 2010 budget planning process to consider renegotiating the firefighters’ contract, which went into effect this year.
Patterson said numbers used by the city may be too preliminary at this point.
“It was maybe not the right time to approach in the pre-budget cycle,” he said.
But also at issue is the cost-of-living compensation the union has in its current contract, which Patterson said is 90 percent of the Seattle/Bremerton consumer price index.
“Over the years, that starts to add up,” he said, referring to the 10 percent difference.
“We didn’t want to lose any more ground.”
According to Coons, the city has 290 employees including part-time and seasonal labor.
Only the approximately 35 management positions and one or two part-time positions are not in unions.
Non-union staff also may not get a cost-of-living raise in 2010, Myers said, but added that has not been determined.
Representatives of the other unions — Teamsters Local No. 589, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local No. 997 and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local No. 1619 — could not be reached for comment.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
