The union will vote on the tentative agreement on Friday and if they ratify it, it will be the first time ever that the union has had a contract in place before the old contract expires, according to Gebhart. The terms of the new deal won’t be released until after it is sealed.
Gebhart said it usually takes at least nine months to a year to negotiate a new contract. They usually start talking in October or November and the contract expires in February.
“We weren’t looking for the world, we were looking for something reasonable,” he said. “For raises, we’re looking to keep up with the pace of inflation. I told them if I make you an offer you’re going to be surprised and they said the same thing. I hope they’re all like this, it would be so nice, contract negotiations are exhausting.”“
The county and the union just went through a contract re-opener over wages that went to conciliation. Because sworn officers can’t strike, contract disputes that reach an unbreakable impasse go to binding arbitration, or conciliation in police terms.
Chief Tony Dwyer said both sides agreed to play nice this time around.
“The last re-opener was a pretty contentious negotiating process,” he said. “After that last re-opener was finalized, both sides indicated it was probably better for the agency and the staff to handle the negotiations in a much more amicable way. So we went into it with a little bit of a different attitude.”
The supervisors and sheriff’s deputies both had wage re-openers in their contracts after they agreed to a $500 lump sum payment for 2013. The conciliator in the deputies’ contract dispute awarded a 2.5 percent pay hike for 2014 and another 2.5 percent for this year on Jan. 26, which will cost the county about $550,000.
The conciliator for the sergeants and lieutenants’ wage dispute ruled in favor of 1.5 percent increases to their wages and steps for both 2014 and 2015 and dismissed the fact finder’s recommendation for merit pay in February.
Dwyer said it wouldn’t be right to discuss the merit pay issue until the contract is ratified by all parties. The county commissioners have been on a crusade to get all offices and departments on board with the pay-for-performance model they have adopted for the departments under their direct control.
The commissioners agreed to drop the issue under the re-openers they had with the dispatch center, corrections officers and paramedics and their supervisors and clerical staff, because it was suggested a re-opener is not the proper time to introduce such a departure from the norm.
Butler County Engineer Greg Wilkens and his teamsters union have also reached a contract deal, but it took nearly a year of negotiating. Wilkens and the Teamsters Union that represents the 24 highway workers agreed to an increase of two percent per year for the next three years. They have also approved raising entry-level salaries.
Wilkens said the deal is fair to both sides and the main sticking point was over extending the length of time discipline stays in effect. The office doesn’t have many discipline issues but for repeat offenders they felt keeping the record in the personnel file an extra year was prudent, he said.
“The last time we negotiated it was a lot quicker,” he said. “Part of it was we extended the time that discipline stays in effect, so it’s on your record for a longer period of time before it gets washed out of your record.”
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