The Buffalo News: Sweet Deal, but County Union Says No

June 16, 2010

By Donn Esmonde

I could see his point. Chris Collins recently made a pitch for enlightened union-management relations at General Motors’ Town of Tonawanda engine plant. The county executive was on hand to celebrate the awarding of a new engine line—and new and saved jobs—for the factory.

The plant survived the recent round of GM plant closings largely because workers and management hammered out changes that pumped up production and cut costs. Among the cost-savers were lower wages for new hires, bonuses instead of raises and weekend work on straight time. Welcome to the real world.

It was a case of survival of the smartest— and it put the plant in line for new work as part of GM’s continuing recovery. Collins said he hoped that county employees follow the lead of the United Auto Workers when it comes to forging sensible contracts.

The GM workers reacted with scattered boos. I understand the bonds of union brotherhood, even across private-and public-worker lines. But I thought that what Collins said made sense. The concessions to reality that autoworkers made to a dis-tressed company meshed with what Collins was asking of county workers in a high-tax, distressed region.

Collins talked, but it does not look like about 4,200 county workers were listening. Civil Service Employees Association workers last week rejected a 15 per-cent pay raise over five years—with veteran workers keeping free health care and most workers holding onto free retiree health benefits.

In return, CSEA workers would no longer bolt a half-hour early on summer days and no longer get off on Columbus Day and Election Day. New hires would pay 15 percent of health care costs and not get free coverage in retirement, with recent hires paying half of their retiree costs. Current workers would basically keep free health care, paying just a small slice of increases.

I look at those terms, and two words spring to mind: “sweet deal.” But, hey, I don’t work for the county. CSEA workers did not merely reject it—they slapped it down by nearly a 2-1 ratio.

I don’t get it.

Most private-sector workers would salivate over an annual raise of 3 percent. Only 6 percent of U. S. workers (according to the Kaiser Family Foundation) get free family health care from employers. Columbus Day and Election Day disappeared from the private-sector holiday list with the two-martini lunch. So did fully loaded retiree health care. Summer hours? In the real world, same as winter hours.

I am sure that folks on the county payroll work hard. But the folks paying their wages—i. e., us—carry the highest combined state and local tax load in the country, according to the state’s Business Council. Unemployment is bumping up against 10 percent—and that does not include folks who stopped looking for work. Unlike county workers, fewer than 1 in 5 workers statewide are in line for a company-provided pension.

All of which makes it tough to sympathize with county workers who tossed back a deal that most of us would jump at.

CSEA official Joan Bender said workers were protecting “newly hired and future employees,” who would not get retiree health benefits. But if future hires cannot live with that, they should not take the job.

“It’s a very generous offer, compared to the private sector,” Collins said. “But I need to fix that [fully paid] retiree health care. We don’t want to pass that cost on to future generations.”

There is a balance between a fair public- worker package and not gouging taxpayers. It looks to me that Collins is watching taxpayers’ backs and walking that line.

I am not sure what line county workers are walking. Or where they think it will take them.