CSEA Workers: Ends Won’t Meet
By Tom Grace, The Daily Star, Oneonta, N.Y.
Jun. 21–Several of Otsego County’s CSEA workers told county board members Wednesday that they can’t make ends meet on their current salaries.
Civil Service Employees Association workers, who number about 600, have been working without a contract since Jan. 1, 2007.
Last year, the county proposed a settlement that would have granted a five-year contract with a 5 percent raise this year and 3 percent raises for 2009, 2010 and 2111. There would have been no raise for 2007, the first year of the contract, although employees would have been given retroactive bonuses of $300.
The union rejected the offer last October by a 10-to-one margin, and negotiations have not gotten on track since then.
Currently, the county has asked the state Public Employees Relations Board to appoint a fact-finder who could propose a nonbinding solution.
At the start of Wednesday’s meeting of the Otsego County Board of Representatives, union workers asked management to open the purse strings.
“Most county employees work very hard, but we get little respect from the board and the public,” said Cindy Macomber, a supervisor with the Department of Social Services.
“If you look at our wages, there are kids coming out of college making more,” she said.
The county’s work force is not large enough for the workload, and “we have do more with a lot less every day,” she said.
Macomber asked board members to increase salaries to retain employees and also to draw more industry to the area.
Pamela Correale of the county Clerk’s Office, who used to live in Rockland County, said Otsego’s salaries lag far behind what is paid to downstate workers.
Linda Carrigan, a registered nurse at Otsego Manor, the county’s nursing home, noted that some county employees qualify for free services from the county because their salaries are insufficient.
Robert Griffith, who also works at Otsego Manor, said some county workers have to take second jobs to pay for the high price of fuel and other necessities.
Michael Ottaviano, a CSEA field representative, told board members “rumor has it that county officials believe this group will break, but that’s not going to happen.”
Ottaviano said board members owe much to the county’s workers and should respect their needs and opinions.
“When you talk about county services, these are the people who deliver them,” he said.
Board members do not respond at meetings to comments made during privilege of the floor.
On Thursday morning, board Chairman James Powers, R-Butternuts, said he and his peers want to settle with the workers but don’t want a sharp increase in property taxes.
“We negotiated in good faith, but we were turned down,” he said. The county will continue to try to reach an agreement, “but we’re going to do it at the negotiation table, not at board meetings or in the newspaper.”
Powers said he and his peers have to balance the needs of employees and those of other tax-paying residents.
“The rising price of fuel is hurting everyone and it’s hurting the county, too,” he said. “It costs us more to run our vehicles, to maintain the roads, and where is the extra money going to come from?”
The chairman said county officials work hard to attract new, and retain existing, businesses, but many firms have fled the state or even the country to avoid high taxes and other costs.
“If we want to attract business, the last thing we want to do is raise taxes,” he said. “We want to be fair, but we have to look at everyone’s concerns, and a lot of people are struggling.”
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