Kraft Claims COs Would Do Better Accepting Contracts Than Demanding Arbitration

Two weeks ago, Northampton County Council member Ken Kraft ended the biweekly meeting by lashing out at Council President Lori Vargo Heffner for a taxpayer-funded junket to Tampa Florida for annual convention of the National Association of Counties. Last night, he started the meeting by attacking the "gaggle", as he called them of unionized corrections officers who appeared and complained at the last meeting. 

This is interesting because Kraft was himself a business manager for the painters' union and is someone who historically has been very pro-union. He also spent five years as an administrator at the jail. 

Kraft stated that corrections officers complained two weeks ago that their contracts are unfair and they haven't gotten steps (steps are 4.5% increases in the payscale). "So long as I've been involved in the prison, if they would have taken the contracts that they were offered and not went to [binding] arbitration, they would have been at least four or five steps higher than they are. Every contract they were offered pretty good terms and they voted them down. Their union representative told them not to take the terms, let's go to arbitration, and then they get like a quarter an hour or something. Then they come back to the next contract and say, 'oh all we got was a quarter an hour.' You did it to yourselves. So I just want everybody to know you had that sob story about somebody who has been there forever and step whatever, well they would have been at least four or five steps higher if they had taken the contracts that were offered in the last seven years - the last three contracts. I just want to let that be known."

Kraft's broadside drew a response from Council member John Goffredo, which was also interesting because he is no fan of unions. 

Goffredo defended the gripes of unionized corrections officers. He said they told him they could go to Lehigh County and get paid more, but Kraft called that an "anomaly" because Lehigh charges more for health care. 

At this point the two began speaking to each other at the same time with neither listening to what the other said. Unfortunately, they remained civil. 

I'd say more but I wasn't listening.