Third union forced to pay more for benefits

<p>Sonoma County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to impose labor contract conditions on a union representing law enforcement workers, making it the third union forced to accept extensive changes in employee and retiree health benefits.</p><p>With no comment by any of the five supervisors, the board decided that the 540 employees represented by the Sonoma County Law Enforcement Association must begin paying a larger share of their medical benefits.</p><p>The association represents correctional officers at the jails and Juvenile Hall, as well as probation officers, emergency dispatchers, district attorney's investigators, park rangers and fire and welfare fraud investigators.</p><p>Tom Gordon, association president, called the action "unlawful" because the union contends it violates recent decisions by a Sonoma County Superior Court judge and a state labor panel that had ruled in favor of the union's positions on contract negotiations. Those decisions have been appealed by county attorneys.</p><p>Last month, supervisors voted unanimously to impose identical contract conditions on members of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 2,700 county workers. A third union, the Deputy Sheriffs Association, last week reached agreement after having similar contract conditions imposed on the 270 members the association represents.</p><p>Over a year of contract negotiations, supervisors have backed county administrators in their attempt to reduce commitments to fund future health benefits as a way to curb a $15 million annual deficit in paying for those medical premiums.</p><p>They already have imposed a $500 monthly lid on medical insurance contributions on about 650 non-union employees as well as on 2,500 retirees.</p><p>Nineteen negotiating sessions had been held since last March. County negotiators presented a final offer on Dec. 2 and the union bargaining group has not responded, said Ann Goodrich, the county's human resources director.</p><p>Under imposed contract conditions, the county will cease funding medical premiums as a percentage of monthly costs, and instead begin limiting county government's share to $500 a month, no matter how many dependents are insured for health coverage.</p><p>Unions have opposed such large-scale revisions in medical premium contributions, saying they represent a significant break with county pledges to provide health coverage for employees and their families, as well as retired government workers.</p><p>The resolution approved Tuesday by supervisors will give employees an immediate 1.75 percent cost-of-living wage increase and, beginning in May, will give employees a $600 monthly salary increase.</p><p>County administrators have maintained that the across-the-board salary increase benefits lower-wage employees who may choose to use the money for family health care coverage.</p><p>The resolution also adds a 1 percent increase to the county contribution to the retiree pension fund.</p><p>The cost of the pay and benefits action taken Tuesday, which is effective for the 2009-2010 fiscal year, is estimated at $1.3 million.</p><p>You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.</p>