Denise Szymura
Erie County– On January 17, CSEA and Erie County announced that a settlement on a new six-year collective bargaining agreement has been reached between the CSEA Erie County Unit and its employer.
The tentative agreement was approved by CSEA membership by a vote of 1,518 – 887 over three days of voting that concluded on Friday, January 12. The Erie County Legislature’s final approval is the last step to making this historic contract a done deal.
“The agreement reached between CSEA and Erie County is fair, sensible and represents a lot of hard work and good faith negotiations between all parties,” said CSEA Erie County Local and Unit President Denise Szymura.
The new contract includes raises of 2.5 percent in 2020 – 2022, along with a raise of 2.25 percent in 2019. In 2018, the contract will add $2,100 to members’ base wage along with a 2 percent raise and $500 of retroactive pay.
Rob Mueller, CSEA Labor Relations Specialist and lead negotiator for the union, said the negotiations were intricate and oftentimes perplexing.
He said, “The negotiations process was incredibly complicated. All of the parties came to the bargaining table fully prepared to bargain aggressively and it wasn’t easy. The end result was a fair contract. This contract is very fair to our members, and recognizes the hard work that they perform for the residents of this county. We are thrilled with the overwhelming positive results from our ratification vote, as it shows that our membership strongly agreed with our assessment.”
Among other highlights of the agreement are the addition of health care plan options, a health insurance premium contribution for active employees and retirees hired prior to August 2014, and an extension of health care for employees on maternity leave. Other upgrades include expanded bereavement leave, inclusion of part-time personnel as part of the bargaining unit, and improvements to shift differential and vacation time sell-back policies, among other items.
The new agreement covers the period between January 1, 2017 and December 31, 2022. There are 2,400 CSEA members employed by Erie County, along with an additional 1,500 members employed by the Erie County Medical Center Corporation (ECMCC), Erie Community College (ECC), and the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library.
-Ove Overmyer
