King County ICS News
The Results Are In:
Congratulations to the Bargaining Team and to the membership: in a second vote of Involuntary Commitment Specialists, a new & improved contract proposal was ratified:
* 24 YES (75%)
* 7 NO (22%)
* 1 Abstention (3%)
The vote was counted July 3, 2007.
The contract now must be ratified by ordinance of the King County Council before it becomes fully effective. The new agreement will provide full retroactive pay to all members and is scheduled to remain in effect through August of 2010. Once effective (our goal is to complete the process by the end of summer), members will be reclassified as "hourly" professionals, and will be eligible to receive overtime pay (or under certain circumstances, compensatory time earned at one and one-half hours for each additional hour worked) for the first time.
Management's Proposal Rejected
After many, many months of bargaining without reaching agreement on new contract language, our bargaining team (Allen, Joan, Judy, and Miles) agreed to ask a mediator from PERC (the Washington State Public Employment Relations Commission) to step in to help us reach a settlement. We met all day on Thursday, March 8th, and mutually agreed to present management's latest proposal to the members for consideration. We agreed to let the bargaining unit workers decide, and not to make a formal recommendation either for or against the proposal. This is the first time we've ever presented a proposed new contract to the members without recommendation.
The members have spoken loud and clear. The final vote on this proposal, counted March 20th, was
* 1 YES
* 30 NO
* 1 ABSTAIN
The members turned out in great numbers to vote; virtually all of our regular career-service members voted and most of our extra help weighed in as well. Our next move is to present a counter proposal to management at the next scheduled mediation, scheduled for Friday, March 30th.
Contract Update: On Monday, June 12th, the negotiator for King County informed the Union that the County is reconsidering its position and consequently bargaining is "on hold" for the time being. Our union team has been insisting on protecting the standards we currently have, and improving other important aspects of our jobs. Management has repeatedly told us they didn't have the funding to accommodate our requests. We haven't reached impasse, but we're getting close. The fact that King County is now "reconsidering" its position is likely a good thing; it may very well lead to some movement that could help us reach a ratifiable tentative agreement.
Crisis and Commitment Specialists working for Metro King County are negotiating for a new contract. The regular bargaining team consists of shop stewards Joan Knutsen, Allen Mankowski, and Judy Raecke. Alternate negotiating team member is Miles Wetsman.
Why do SEIU members lobby the state legislature? On Monday, January 23rd, SEIU members who work in mental health lobbyied our state legislature for safer staffing levels. Many ICS workers helped us gather information by completing a mental health worker survey; the information from that survey was compiled into a "white paper" to help us convince legislators of the need for safe staffing levels and reasonable case loads for community-based mental health case managers. Talk to one of the stewards or contact the Union office for more information or to get involved.