TMCnet News
CSEA contract extension signed(Buffalo News, The (NY) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 21--LOCKPORT -- As the Niagara County Legislature ratified a new contract with the sheriff's road patrol deputies Wednesday, County Manager Gregory D. Lewis disclosed that he has signed a tentative contract extension with the county's largest union, the white-collar Civil Service Employees Association. Terms of the CSEA deal, according to Lewis, will give its members 3 percent annual pay raises in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The deputies, represented by United Steelworkers Local 2001, the Niagara County Sheriff's Police Benevolent Association, agreed to the same pay terms for the future years. The deputies also will receive retroactive pay hikes dating back to the expiration of their last contract at the end of 2005. Those increases are 2.5 percent for 2006 and 2007, and 3 percent this year. CSEA local President Thomas J. Lafornia confirmed that he and Lewis have signed a tentative deal, and the union is to vote on it Sept. 16. CSEA's current contract, covering about 900 members, expires Dec. 31. Lewis said the successful end to talks with the deputies got the attention of other unions. "It's my intention to bring in other unions at 3, 3 and 3 [percent raises] for '09, '10 and '11," the manager told the Administration Committee just prior to the full Legislature's unanimous vote on the deputies' deal. Lewis said the best part about the contract from his perspective was that the 102 deputies will be joining the county's self-funded single-provider health care program, in which three other unions and all non-union employees already are taking part. "They were the most rigorous opponents, but we brought them on board, and we bought labor peace through 2011," Lewis said. "When it comes to contract negotiations, that's true, as long as they honor what we bargained," said James L. Briggs, the deputies' negotiator. "We got a darn good contract." As of Jan. 1, the deputies, who overwhelmingly ratified the deal two weeks ago, will have three choices for health care, ranging from a program of low co-payments but no reimbursement accounts, to a package of high copays with a $750 reimbursement for them. All are self-funded by the county. Lewis didn't know how much the retroactive raises would cost, but he said they were well within the money budgeted for them, and no fund transfers would be needed. The 2008 budget stashed $750,000 in a line labeled "Provision for Salary Increase," and $807,000 in another line called "General Government Support," which also has been tapped for pay increases in the past. [email protected] To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.buffalonews.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |