All Spokane contracts are settled until next year

NO COUNCIL 2 contracts are up for renewal in Spokane County or in the City of Spokane for the rest of the year.

“In Spokane County, they are all settled through the end of 2010,” says Council 2 Staff Representative Gordon Smith. “It is a good time to be under a contract and not to have to bargain a new one right now.”

One contract was bargained after the economy turned sour. That situation made for some tough negotiating and provided an illustration of what could have happened were more contracts to have come up for bargaining in coming months.

Yet the end result was not as bad as some had feared it could have been.

“Although it involved a $3 million budget shortfall and a number of jobs were put at risk, at the end of it all we lost only two actual members,” Smith says. “And one of those already is back to work part time. Another was in a position to obtain full retirement.

“We are not doing cartwheels, but we did not get as badly hit as some other places were. By the time it all shook out it was not as heinous as we first thought it might be, even though we made contingency plans in case things turned out bad.”

But, even though no contracts are being negotiated, inevitably the slow economy is having an impact.

“We are losing vacant positions,” Smith says.

“They would have been filled were it not for the economic situation.”

As for the 1,100 Council 2 members in the City of Spokane, “all the contracts were settled about two months before the economy crashed,” says Council 2 Representative Mike Smith.