County, union workers near pact

Launce Rake and Ed Koch

Monday, March 17, 2003 | 11:13 a.m.

Clark County and the union local representing county rank-and-file employees have reached a tentative agreement, a county source confirmed this weekend.

The terms of the agreement, which is under federal mediation, were not disclosed in detail, but would include cost-of-living raises for most employees of 2.75 percent or 3 percent, the source said.

Both sides issued a statement Friday that said only that they would not have any official comment on the talks or the tentative agreement, which still needs approval from Service Employees International Union members.

"Under the counsel of the federal mediator, and in the interest of furthering the collective bargaining process, the county and SEIU Local 1107 have mutually agreed that it is not appropriate to publicly comment on the status of collective bargaining, or any issue that is the subject of bargaining, at this time," the brief statement said.

Union officials contacted over the weekend said they would have no immediate comment beyond the statement, but rank-and-file members said privately that they believed the union was preparing to unveil the terms of the agreement.

About 10,000 Clark County employees have been without a contract for eight months.

The previous contract ran from July 1, 1998, to July 30, 2002, and covered county workers and UMC doctors, as well as employees of the Regional Transportation Commission, Regional Flood Control and the Water Reclamation District.

Although talks have continued for more than a year over a new contract for county employees, Clark County and the union reached an impasse when the union balked at County Manager Thom Reilly's request for a third-party fact-finder to examine the contract offers.

The two sides also were at an impasse over the proposed cost-of-living adjustments and issues regarding subcontractors.

The county had offered 2 percent COLA increases in each of four years for county workers and no COLA increases for UMC physicians. SEIU had wanted 3.78 percent COLA for county workers and 2.78 for UMC physicians.

Late last month at the Legislature, Assembly Democrats told Clark County officials that if they want raises for their elected officers, they had better settle a contract for union workers.

Assembly man Wendell Williams, D-North Las Vegas, said he thought it was "arrogant and inconsiderate to even debate this in Clark County when those employees don't have a contract."

Assembly Bill 66 calls for the increase of salaries for commissioners and all other elected county officials in Nevada's 17 counties. In Clark County the pay for commissioners would go from $54,000 to $80,558.