CHILDREN SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS TIMELINE
June 10, 2013: Contract negotiations begin with the Butler County Children Services Independent Union and management.
May 20, 2014: A hearing is held with the State Employment Relations Board. The union wants cost of living step increase reinstated and a 3.5 percent increase in each year of the three-year contract. The county offers the $500/$550 lump sum bonus it has negotiated with 10 other unions and no steps.
June 5: State Employment Relations Board issues report recommending that cost of living step increases be reinstated and approves raises of 1.5 percent retroactive to July 2013, a 1.75 percent raise in July and a 2 percent increase if a settlement isn't reached on the new county pay-for-performance program.
June 12: Butler County commissioners reject the fact finder's recommendation. The union previously approved the fact finder's recommendation.
Aug. 4: After two rounds of voting, 94 percent of the social workers vote to strike.
Aug. 7: Butler County holds a job fair to hire 20 permanent and 40 temporary workers. About 300 people showed up and about a dozen were hired on the spot.
Aug. 17: The two sides have a last ditch session with a federal mediator but after three hours no accord was reached. The county's lump sum offer would cost $219,288 extra and the union's demand was about $1.3 million in additional salary costs.
Aug. 18: Butler County Children Services workers take to the picket lines.
Aug. 22: County issues cease and desist letter because union members allegedly uttering falsehoods about the state of the agency in their absence.
Aug. 26: First union management negotiation since the strike. The social workers agree to remove the 3.3 percent step increases and drop the across-the-board demand bringing the wage divide down to $303,992.
Sept. 8: After three tries with the federal mediator the county stands firm on its "last, best and final offer" of a $550 lump sum bonuses rather than percentage increases.
Sept. 9: Fifteen months after negotiations began, the social workers go back to work without a contract with the county.
Oct. 22: A five-hour bargaining session turns up empty.
Nov. 18: The county has moved off its $550 lump sum stance and there was hope a deal could be sealed but the two sides came up empty after seven hours of negotiating.
Feb. 6, 2015: A bargaining session was scheduled but then cancelled because Administrator Charlie Young said they needed to look where they stand financially with the $4 million agency deficit from 2014.
March 19: After 19 months and now 26 negotiating sessions, the impasse remains intact.
April 13: The county and its social workers reach a tentative agreement and the 75 percent of the social workers vote to ratify the new retroactive contract that will cost the county $360,000 over four years.
The Butler County Children Services social workers have ended their wage war with the county the same way it began — casting ballots in favor of a new contract in a shiny, royal blue box on the sidewalk outside their offices on Fair Avenue.
Butler County commissioners and the social workers union reached a tentative contract agreement after almost two years of negotiations and a three-week strike this past summer. Seventy-five percent of the 63 dues-paying union members cast their ballots to ratify the deal on Thursday.
The outdoor vote was symbolic this time. When the social workers voted to strike in August, management forced them to take their union business outside. The then-127-person union voted 90 to 14 to hit the picket line.
County Administrator Charlie Young said it will cost the county about $360,000 over the life of the four-year contract. The last dollar amounts available during the protracted negotiation were after the county had moved off its traditional lump-sum offer that would have cost an additional $219,288. The last known union offer would have cost the county an extra $523,280.
Young said all of the union employees will get a $500 lump sum retroactive to July 2013 and $550 from last summer. The union and the county also agreed to adjust pay scales upward and give merit raises. The county has been pushing for all departments and offices in the county to adopt performance pay.
Union Chief Becky Palmer said they have agreed to a 2 percent increase to the minimum and maximum salaries on their pay ranges, and in July, the social workers will receive one- to three-percent pay hikes based on their performance. A 2 percent pool of money is available for raises. The salary ranges will get another 2 percent increase in 2016, and workers will be eligible for merit pay.
Palmer said she is still a little leery about merit pay and the revolving door at the agency hasn’t been addressed, but it was time to settle the contract dispute.
“Given a choice between the county’s merit pay system and continuing this lengthy labor dispute, the union felt it was in the best interest of the agency and the families we serve to accept the proposed contract,” she said. “At a minimum, we hope that resolving this labor dispute will lead to greater cooperation in the future.”
In December, the county made an offer that would have left some social workers, those with the most experience, without pay increases, according to Palmer. Under the new agreement, with the expanded pay ranges everyone is eligible.
The two sides were still at odds when they met in March. Palmer said the stalemate likely broke after an arbitration hearing on the union’s unfair labor practices action last week.
The union filed the ULP against the county for laying off workers without bargaining. The ULP has been settled — the county agreed to pay $9,230 to the 13 people who were laid off — and both sides said that issue and the new contract are mutually exclusive. Palmer said the county’s attorney in the arbitration, who has not been involved in contract negotiations, maybe served as fresh eyes on the whole dispute, because the county came back with something they could live with.
“I don’t know if the attorney had influenced their decision or not,” she said. “I didn’t anticipate this, but was glad to see movement.”
Young said he doesn’t believe the two sides have been that far apart for the last several months, it just took a bit more give and take.
“If either could walk a little bit down the road toward the other, we could get this accomplished, and we did so,” he said.
Commissioner Don Dixon said he is glad the matter is almost over. The commissioners will take their vote next week.
“I’m pleased that they ratified and we can move forward. The contract gets the county where it needs to be in our overall pay for performance program,” he said. “Wish we all didn’t have to go through all that, but that’s behind us and we’re going to look forward. It’s a good contract for the county and I think it’s a fair contract for them.”
It took 27 bargaining sessions over 20 months and a three-week strike for the sides to finally see eye-to-eye. Social worker Bob Barker was one of about 46 social workers who trudged up and down Fair Avenue and in front of the Government Services Center for 14 days. He cast his ballot on Thursday, saying whatever the outcome they had reached it together.
“Personally and for families it’s been difficult,” he said. “For the community, for the case workers and still having questions unanswered at this point, makes it all the more difficult.”
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