YAKIMA COUNTY employees were angry last year when management told them during contract negotiations that the county was broke and no money was available to pay them increases.

In addition, management said, the employees’ average pay of $30,000 a year already was enough.

The bargaining unit for Yakima Locals 87 (Aging and Long Term Care and County Courthouse), 87-P (Juvenile Services) and 2658 (Appraisers) refused to accept the County’s contentions and the negotiations, begun in August 2004, dragged on.

Already, the 300 employees represented by the bargaining unit had worked for more than a year without a contract.

But their frustration turned to outrage when they discovered that officials in the top positions in the county were receiving increases ranging from 2.5 percent to 25 percent.

The increases were uncovered when the union, at the request of Council 2, conducted an audit on the County’s budget. After the county refused to provide the budget details the International used a Freedom of Information request to obtain the information.

“They reported in November that the county is not wealthy, but it is not broke,” explains Bill Keenan, Council 2 Director of Organizing, who assisted with the negotiations. “They found, too, that it could afford modest pay increases.

“One of the things we inadvertently discovered was that they had secretly granted enormous pay increases to the top 44 positions in the county. Those positions are all filled by department heads and managers.”

Increases averaged 11 percent and some were for as much as $15,000 a year, Keenan says. “And they decided that some of those people who were earning $103,000 a year were still not making enough, so they gave them $6,000 more to make their salary $109,000 a year.

“Obviously the employees were outraged. They said they had been lied to and deceived.”

The Local members decided to act.

A special general meeting of members voted unanimously to authorize a strike if necessary.

To inform the broader public what was happening, the union ran advertisements on local radio stations late last year.

Members erected billboards around the town proclaiming: “Respect and equality; that’s all employees are asking for.”

The union set up well-attended informational picketing at the courthouse.

Their protests were not in vain.

When negotiations resumed in early February the County was more open to discussing budget numbers, says Keenan.

By mid-February the union and the County reached a tentative agreement, which was approved by the Yakima County Commissioners.

The two-year agreement, which runs to the end of this year, is subject to approval by the union’s general membership.

The bargaining committee has recommended ratification.

Among the provisions of the settlement is a one-time $500 signing bonus for all staff, $65 increases in payments toward employees’ medical premiums and bumping rights in case of layoffs.

In addition, the three Locals will have the right to pick from any five classifications that they believe are underpaid for reclassification of salary.

“There was only one reason the settlement occurred,” says Keenan. “It was the incredible hard work and solidarity of all the workers who participated in the informational picketing, radio ads and billboards.” Keenan adds that the local bargaining committee should be commended for an extraordinary effort. “They went above and beyond what most negotiations entail,” he says.

The negotiating committee consisted of: Local 87—Kathy McNulty and Tom Magers; Local 87-P—Ruthanne Cortez, Roxanne Johns and Dan Behler; Local 2658 Tim Kraft and Kathy Lasich.

Assisting them were Staff Representatives Roy Brannam and Tom Barrington as well as Keenan.