Lincoln County commissioners and the local Sheriff’s Dept. union chairman signed a three-year union contract Tuesday morning affecting 27 employees, giving them a 3 percent increase.
The event that occurred during the board’s regular monthly meeting marked the first time in many years the signing of a contract occurred before the previous one expires.
“We were able to get it ratified before the end of the year,” said Det. Sgt. Pease of the Sheriff’s Dept., local union representative. “Now it’s a couple of weeks before – that’s huge.”
Both Pease, who is chairman of the Local 18, Council 93 of the American Federation of State, County, Municipal Employees – AFL-CIO and Board Chairman Sheridan Bond commented on the amicable relations during the negotiations process leading up to the ratification and signing Tuesday.
“This is the first time since I’ve been here that we’ve signed a contract before the last one expired,” Bond said.
The new contract includes a step increase and no loss of benefits and maintains what the employees had before, Pease said. He said it also includes verbiage changes that clarify some issues.
“We applaud the new leadership for working so well in concert with the board to come up with a contract that meets the needs of all parties,” Bond said.
Commissioner Bill Blodgett, who served as the board’s representative in the negotiation process this fall, said the union representative worked well with the employees, board, and county labor negotiator, Annalee Rosenblatt.
Rosenblatt said usually in the past both sides do a lot of prepping and then go into special meetings to talk, but this time negotiators were available at other times to discussion various issues, thus smoothing the way for better negotiations.
Currently four other counties have been conducting negotiations, and Lincoln County has achieved the ratification before any of them this time.
