Will NorCo Council Penalize Probation Officers For Leaving Union?

Most employers, even public employers, hate having to deal with unions. It's easy to screw a lone employee. That gets a lot harder when he has the legal protections afforded to a collective bargaining unit. There really is strength in unity, and I've seen it firsthand. But yesterday was the first time I saw a public employer try to stick it to a group of workers simply because they have no union. That's what two Northampton County Council members want to do to its 64 court-appointed professionals, who consist mostly of probation officers and court reporters. Will they succeed? We'll find out when County Council convenes tonight. Let me fill you in.

Northampton County's court-appointed professionals were represented by AFSCME, but that never made any sense. This is because they serve at the pleasure of the court, and no union can protect them if a judge decides to can one or all of them for any reason, even a bad one. That's the nature of at-will employment.

Last year, 30% of the court-appointed professionals petitioned the Pa. Labor Relations Board (PLRB) for decertification of AFSCME, their bargaining unit. An election was scheduled, but the union read the tea leaves and decided to throw in the towel. It was basically an amicable divorce. On January 21 of this year, the PLRB decertified the union.

It was around this time that Executive Lamont McClure successfully negotiated six union contracts. He claimed he wanted to follow the same pattern for one and all. This consisted of a step increase (4 1/2%) in the first year, followed by two percent raises in Years two and three. Corrections officers would later insist on binding arbitration, and made out a little worse than if they had just taken McClure's offer.

What about the court-appointed professionals? Exec McClure recently decided to recommend that they get a two percent payhike like other career service employees. But the raise only goes into effect on July 28 instead of being effective at the beginning of the year, like it was for all other career service employees.

McClure's recommendation was considered by Council's Personnel Committee last night. Peter Nebzydoski, a probation officer with the county for the past 10 years, asked Council to make the payhike retroactive to January 21, the date their union was decertified. He certainly works hard enough. He has a case load of 234 people. But two council members - Bill McGee and Kevin Lott - who are or were union agents, basically told Nebzydoski that he should have stayed in a union and must now pay the price for his stupidity.

Not all of Council feels this way. Saying he agreed with Nebzydoski, Council member John Cusick argued that the payraise be made retroactive until the beginning of the year. This would cost the county a grand total of $69,982.

That's too much for Northampton County Council member Kevin Lott, who is still listed as Business Agent for the Lehigh Valley Carpenters' Union.

"They made the choice to leave the union and that was their choice," he said. "They could have stayed there and got what was offered. Now the employees are coming back six months later and are saying, 'Forget your budget. We made a choice but we don't really like that choice' ... I think there was [sic] some bad choices made by employees here." He concluded by saying they made a mistake and would have to live with the consequences.

Pretty clearly, Lott wishes to penalize a class of workers for exercising their right to leave a union. "They didn't see the big picture here," he said, which I translate as meaning they should have stayed union.

Council member Bill McGee, who just happens to be the Business Agent for the Insulators' Union, echoed Lott "They did make a choice."

It is unlawful for union agents to threaten economic harm to employees who desire to decertify. In this case, union agents Lott and McGee are doing more than threatening these workers. They are imposing an actual economic hardship. They both seem to have forgotten that they are on Council to serve the public, not the unions.

"What we're asking for is just to be fair," said Nebzydoski, noting that all other career service employees received a two percent hike at the beginning of the year.

Will County Council relent and make this payhike retroactive? We'll find out tonight.