CLEARFIELD – Ongoing labor issues dominated the discussion after Tuesday’s regular Clearfield County Commissioners’ meeting.
On June 16 and 17, the county jail was forced to lockdown because of a staffing shortage after all the dayshift corrections officers called off sick.
Then, Monday and again Tuesday, multiple courthouse/annex offices were impacted by a high number of call-offs as employees take a stand in their ongoing contract dispute with the county.
The exact number of call-offs is unknown because some affected offices are under the management and control of other elected officials, said Commissioners John Sobel and Dave Glass Tuesday.
The dispute seems to have died down at the jail, Glass said, and hasn’t affected the county’s 911/Emergency Services Departments, and this week seems to be limited to the courthouse.
While there have been an “extremely high number” of sick day call-offs over the past few weeks, to his knowledge, no employee has admitted to any organized event.
But even if it was/is an employee-organized event, Glass said he doesn’t want to concentrate on punishment or consequences as much as he just wants to “sit down and make a deal.”
However, he said the Teamsters’ bargaining units have failed to produce a counter-offer, and instead walked away from negotiations weeks ago.
The dispute, he believes, is over the county’s efforts to shift monies from its extremely rich benefits package to its extremely poor salary package to offer more competitive wages.
It’s ugly anytime changes are proposed to employees’ healthcare, Glass said, but the employees must be willing to work together to arrive at a “fair deal” for everyone.
“Compared to historical norms, this board has already approved well above normal raises for two unions, as well as the non-union employees two weeks ago.”
The commissioners have new contract agreements with Children & Youth Services and Probation, but not with their jail, court-related, court-appointed and residual employee groups.
Three of the four unresolved contracts involve bargaining units that have arbitration rights, Glass said, but not strike rights, and arbitration hearings have been scheduled for the latter part of July.
Glass went on to ask employees to “respect” the collective bargaining/arbitration process, and return to work so the county can provide efficient and effective public service.
“Currently they are not serving the public,” Sobel added, “yet they are continuing to take the public’s money. That is not public service.”