Editorial: Westmoreland officials’ pay increase, workers’ strike notice are predictable problem
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Westmoreland County officials cannot be surprised by employees bristling over contract negotiations.
Aside from the four-year contract expiring Dec. 31 and stalled negotiations, there is the fact that many employees have been dealing with increased work and shorter staff for years.
These are problems that might have come into the spotlight during and after the coronavirus pandemic, but they didn’t start there. Nurses and other workers at Westmoreland Manor have been under pressure for years. So have 911 emergency center dispatchers, Area Agency on Aging caseworkers, juvenile detention and probation officers, and others.
More than 500 workers in these areas are represented by Service Employees International Union Local 668 and Healthcare Pennsylvania. On Thursday, the union members rejected a proposal from the county and intend to strike within days.
So why shouldn’t the commissioners be surprised? Other contracts can sometimes expire for a year or more as negotiations continue. Eventually a new deal is reached and everything is business as usual.
The commissioners didn’t have to strike to get their 3.5% pay raise this year. Add the increases for 2022, 2023 and 2024 together and you get a 17% hike for the commissioners and row officers, numbers tied to the consumer price index.
None of today’s commissioners — Sean Kertes, Doug Chew or Ted Kopas — voted for the ordinance that set the raises in motion more than 20 years ago. It isn’t their fault it exists, and no one is asking them to work for free. But that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have seen it as a problem.
The union workers say they are frustrated. That is understandable when the raise on the table is 2%.
But it can’t be boiled down just to money. Yes, pay is a sticking point in almost every contract. In this one, the challenges of too few people doing the work is also a factor — one likely to exacerbate the paycheck issue.
“We’re hoping that services won’t have to be interrupted, but our county’s had a staffing crisis for too long, and we are demanding a real solution,” said Westmoreland Manor nurse and union vice president Tammy Steban in a statement. “That means making these jobs and wages competitive enough.”
The county has been aware of the staffing problems in these contract areas as well as others. They were a factor for the corrections staff at the county jail. After a year with no contract, a new one for those workers was approved this month. Jail guards received a 3% raise.
The county doesn’t have a bottomless bank account. The commissioners and salary board have to be reasonable and responsible with the money they spend.
But the county’s system is built to adjust for cost of living at the top. Meanwhile, the people who care for the elderly, answer emergency calls and protect children shoulder the burden of understaffed positions without similar compensation.
The automatic increase can seem like a “let them eat cake” moment during contract negotiations, and the union’s decision was predictable.