Henderson, unions approve deals, minus pay hikes

By Jeremy Twitchell

Wednesday, June 10, 2009 | 12:15 a.m.

Three of the four unions representing Henderson city employees have accepted labor agreements for the upcoming year that eliminate cost-of-living increases.

The Teamsters Local 14, which represents the Blue Collar, Office and Clerical, and Supervisors employee unions in Henderson, voted Tuesday night to forgo its contractually obligated annual pay increase that would have gone into effect July 1.

Henderson Acting Human Resources Director Fred Horvath said the vote was about 90 percent in favor. The move will save the city $5.4 million over the next four years, he said.

“The Teamsters Local 14’s leadership has been immense,” Horvath said. “They really carried the day for us.”

Teamsters officials couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Also Tuesday night, the Henderson City Council unanimously approved a new one-year labor agreement with the Henderson Police Officers Association that doesn’t include an annual cost-of-living increase, a deal that both parties hailed as a united effort to “do the right thing.”

Union members approved the agreement by a wide margin last month. With Henderson facing a budget shortfall of almost $60 million in the current year, members of both unions approved the agreements in an effort to help the city make ends meet.

The new agreement with the police union also means that the Henderson Police Supervisors Union, which bases its contract on the same base wage that officers receive, will forgo a cost-of-living increase this year as well.

Horvath said the city is still talking to its fourth union, the Henderson Professional Firefighters Union, to work out a similar agreement.

“I’m cautiously optimistic, but we’re running out of time,” Horvath said. “The fiscal year is right around the corner.”

The new agreement with the Henderson Police Officers Association replaces the one-year deal the two sides reached last year. The Teamsters are completing the first year of a four-year deal.

In recent years, members of the Henderson Police Officers Association have received annual pay increases of 3.5 to 4 percent. A 3.5 percent increase would have cost Henderson almost $1.3 million in salary and benefits per year, while a 4 percent increase would have cost almost $1.5 million, Horvath said.

The new deal does include a number of other changes that will increase its net cost by as much $766,000 over the current one-year deal that the parties reached last year, but by avoiding a base wage increase, which would carry over into future years, the agreement will save the city many millions over the long run, Horvath said.

“Obviously, I’m pleased with the leadership the police officers displayed in recognizing our challenges,” Horvath said. “It is a ton of money that we saved.”

HPOA President Gary Hargis said that of the approximately 200 members who voted on the proposal, 90 percent voted in favor.

“At the end of the day, it was just the right thing to do,” Hargis said. “In this economy, we have so many people who are losing their jobs and facing unemployment. Our jobs in public safety tend to be a little safer, and we didn’t see a need to make the taxpayers pay more for our salaries. Bottom line: it was just the right thing to do.”

Among the contract’s increases are a $455,000 augmentation to fully cover the 3.5 percent increase in officers contributions to the Public Employees Retirement System of Nevada, a one-time $500 payment for every officer in lieu of the salary increase and a $60 raise in each officer’s monthly uniform allowance ($45 effective July 1 and $15 effective Jan. 1) to $195 per month.

The increases were offset in part by seven cost-saving alterations to the agreement, including a new holiday pay policy that will allow officers to bank holiday hours instead of taking the pay for holidays that fall on a normal day off, the replacement of Columbus Day with a floating holiday and changes in the holiday and sick pay structures for corrections officers.

Together, the cost savings measures will save the city about $461,000. The increased costs totaled more than $1.2 million. However, the savings are calculated using a conservative estimate that officers will bank 35 percent of holiday hours instead of taking the pay -- if that number reaches 50 percent, the city’s savings increase to about $561,000 and the net increase of the labor deal drops to about $666,000.

“I’ve been doing this for 32 years now, and (HPOA) was the most professional group I’ve ever worked with,” Horvath said. “It was clear from the word go that they were going to come in and help us deal with our challenges.”