By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA — Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ Local 3781 are opting for layoffs rather than reduced hours in the wake of the county’s budget crisis.
Janet Boland, the county’s E911 coordinator and local president, said members have been meeting every month since the crisis began to discuss the commissioners’ requests for concessions. The body has decided to hold commissioners to the employment contract, even if it means layoffs.
So far this year, two members from the Clerk of Courts, one from the building department, one from custodial and one from information technology have been laid off as a result of the county’s budget woes.
Boland said Wednesday afternoon that she had not been notified of any other pending layoffs. The union is required to receive a seven-day notice of layoff actions.
AFSCME represents about 45 county workers in the commissioners, building, 911, Emergency Management, Environmental Services and Community Services departments. Boland said only about half of those positions are funded by the general fund.
Cindy Michael, staff representative for AFSCME Ohio Council 8, said members have given concessions in the past, “but at some point you have to put your foot down and say enough is enough.”
Michael, in a prepared statement, stated that the union has asked the county what savings would be realized if a wage freeze were taken across the board and what the county’s plan is to solve “this seemingly ongoing financial mess.”
“Our thought was that if you are attempting to reach into our pockets again, what plan did you have for our money? How would you best utilize it to solve the county’s woes this year? As early as last week, when we asked this question yet again, we were told that the county has no plan in place yet,” wrote Michael.
Boland acknowledged that layoffs are expensive for the county, which has to pay 50 percent of the unemployment insurance and for accrued vacation time and also pick up a large percentage of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) payments if an employee chooses to continue medical insurance.
Commissioners have asked employees to take pay reductions so their benefits are preserved and the economic impact is spread evenly across every worker’s paycheck, but the bargaining unit has drawn the line.
“Everybody has to do what they can to take care of their family, but you can only cut so deep before your arms are gone,” Boland said.
