MINEOLA — Critical services that CSEA Nassau County workers provide could be reduced or eliminated due to a retirement incentive that may cause more than 300 CSEA members to vacate their positions.
The county is already experiencing understaffing in several departments, including 911, whose workers must be employed for more than a year before they are allowed to receive calls. A lack of workers will increase hold times for incoming calls.
Coming out of one of Long Island’s worst winters in recorded history has made possible issues in the Public Works Department glaringly obvious. The group is currently down five snowplow drivers. Unless more drivers are hired, roadways will take longer to clear.
Child protective services has had ongoing problems with recruitment because of low pay. Those issues will only be made worse by losing existing staff, which is alarming considering their work, much like that of 911 operators, is sometimes a matter of life or death.
To prevent the county from undercutting current positions, CSEA Nassau County Local representatives negotiated an agreement with the county that prevented that from happening. Under the terms of the agreement, the county will promote workers from within and backfill vacant positions.
Initially, the county drew up an agreement and handed it to local representatives with the expectation that the local would sign it, which they refused to do. To reach a fair agreement, our union’s Nassau County Local officers continuously asked Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to schedule meetings; Blakeman repeatedly ignored the requests. The local board had to be very persistent to keep negotiations with the county moving forward.
“We’re going to stay on top of the county by having daily conversations, asking them what their plans are for understaffed departments,” said Nassau County Local President Kris Kalender.
The agreement also allows the county to defer employees’ separation from county service for up to a year in departments like Social Services to maintain continuity.
Retirees are happy to have received a signing bonus as part of the agreement CSEA made with the county. Active members are happy that the local fought to make sure the staffing issues were addressed.
To keep members informed during meetings with the county, the local sent out emails to the membership at least once per week.
At first, some members were upset that the local refused to sign the first agreement the county presented to CSEA. After seeing the impact retirements were beginning to have on remaining staff, one of the members who was upset contacted the local to apologize for their initial criticism.
The local increased its advocacy profile by speaking at the Nassau County Legislature, which attracted press and led to publicly highlighting departments that would be the most impacted by mass retirements.
“Now that we’ve done the work on the front end, should something negative happen, there’s less the local has to do to bring our message to the public,” said CSEA Nassau County Local Vice President Garrett Wakefield. “I think the county is taking our concerns more seriously because of the publicity as well. Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see if the county will do the right thing.”
— Wendi Bowie