CSEA workers reject contract tentative agreement with Onondaga County

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Onondaga County on Wednesday announced that county employees represented by the CSEA have voted against a proposed contract.

CSEA is short for Civil Service Employees Association.

 A state-appointed mediator, negotiators for Onondaga County, local CSEA president Kathy Zabinski, and the CSEA negotiating committee had “mutually agreed” to the contract, according to the Onondaga County news release.

Union members voted against the proposal, 1,528-110, according to a statement released Tuesday night on the Facebook page of the CSEA Central Region 5.

The CSEA Local 834 is Onondaga County’s largest union.

The state-appointed mediator had “urged” the union to bring the tentative contract back to members for a vote, the CSEA statement said. Onondaga County noted that same line in its news release.

Onondaga County’s five-year contract offer, which negotiators reached in late June, left CSEA members feeling “disrespected,” according to the union’s statement.

The union contends the pact offered wage increases that are “much lower” than increases in the annual cost of living (as measured by the Consumer Price Index), while at the same time requiring county workers to contribute much higher rates for their health-insurance premiums and other health-care costs.

The tentative agreement covered the year 2013 through 2017, the county said.

The pact called for wage increases of 1 percent in 2014 and 2 percent in 2015, 2016, and 2017.

The agreement also made changes to employee health-insurance plans, the county said.  It called for employee health-care contributions to rise from 11 percent to 20 percent over the course of the contract, bringing the contributions in line with both national averages and county-management employees, according to the county.

The vote is “disappointing,” Peter Troiano, Onondaga County personnel commissioner, said in the news release.

The CSEA is also characterizing the agreement as a “county proposal,” Troiano said, which he contends is “dishonest to their members.”

“The truth is that this agreement was reached in good faith by the county and the union’s elected president Kathy Zabinski and the entire CSEA committee with the assistance of a state-appointed mediator,” said Troiano.

The CSEA may have “already” violated labor law once earlier in the process and “improper practice charges” from that episode are still pending, said Troiano. 

“Zabinski’s late-night attempts to distract her members from the truth and duck responsibility for the agreement she made is also likely illegal and may result in additional improper-practice charges being filed against the union. In the meantime, we will progress to fact-finding with the hope of getting the contract resolved as soon as possible,” he added.

 A county government is charged with balancing the hard work and value of county employees with the obligation it has to all county taxpayers, Joanie Mahoney, Onondaga County Executive, said in the county’s news release.

“This agreement respected both our taxpayers struggle to control the cost of government as well as the hard work of county employees who also have increases in their costs of living,” said Mahoney.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com