‘We’re serious’: County court clerks walk out over wages

EVERETT — Snohomish County court clerks walked off the job Monday to protest stalled contract talks and lower pay compared with other county workers.

Members of the Snohomish County Clerks’ Association stood with picket signs outside the county courthouse downtown, where most legal business was postponed for the day. The walkout also involved clerks at the Denney Juvenile Justice Center in north Everett.

“It’s basically to get the county’s attention, to say we’re serious,” union president Melody Stewart said.

If the clerks see no progress on the contract and decide to walk out again, Stewart warned, “it won’t be for a day.”

The work stoppage created long lines at the main clerk’s counter downtown and forced the closure of legal operations at Denney. Managers stood in to fulfill legal requirements while Superior Court was in session. Things were expected to return to normal Tuesday.

The union represents about 65 employees under county Clerk Sonya Kraski, who has been sympathetic to their situation.

Much of what court clerks do is mandated by the state constitution. Their employees process lawsuits. They handle trial logistics and collect restitution payments.

Without clerks, it would be impossible to finalize divorces, certify the governor’s warrants for extradition or prepare protection orders. They certify bench warrants and writs needed for law enforcement to pick up endangered children.

“The clerks are really the cogs in the wheel that keep things moving forward,” Kraski said.

The previous clerks’ contract expired after 2014.

The union wants more than just equivalent pay raises and medical benefits approved recently for employees in the county’s largest public sector union. Clerks say their job descriptions haven’t changed in 15 years. They’re demanding an update.

The stagnant job classifications, they contend, have left them with lower salaries than other county employees performing similar work.

Records assistants and process assistants in the Clerk’s Office start at about $37,500 and can rise to a maximum of about $45,500. Courtroom judicial assistants earn slightly more.

The high end of the pay scale is about $14,000 less than what experienced workers earn for similar jobs in other county departments, Kraski said.

Kraski and the union blame the salary discrepancy for higher turnover.

It costs about $109,000 on average to train a new employee for a job in the clerk’s office. New hires remain on a probationary status for the first year.

“In the time that an employee is being trained, you’re effectively paying two people for the same job,” she said.

Fifteen employees left from 2013 through 2015, some to better-paying jobs within county government. Turnover during that period cost the Clerk’s Office more than $2 million in hiring and training costs, union representatives say. Instead, they could have spent that money to cover nearly five years of the requested raises, union president Stewart said.

“The county continues to waste money,” she said. “We’re losing people left and right. We’re losing money in training costs.”

They have support from judges and many other court officials.

“This gross under-compensation of deputy clerks and the resultant talent drain are affecting the Superior Court,” Judge Michael Downes wrote to the County Council last June. “The clerks assigned to our trial departments are responsible for complex and crucial processes supporting the court; these are not standard ‘clerical’ tasks which can be handled by anyone.”

The disparities have left some clerk employees wondering if the overwhelmingly female composition of the office has something to do with how they’re being treated; all but a half-dozen of their employees — more than 90 percent — are women.

Things are growing tenser with the clerks after a breakthrough on another labor front.

The County Council last week ratified a new four-year contract for members the AFSCME-affiliated Washington State Council of County and City Employees. That contract covers roughly half of the 2,800-person county workforce.

The agreement grants yearly raises of up to 2.5 percent.

County Executive Dave Somers issued a statement saying that resolving the clerks’ long-standing labor dispute has been “one of his highest priorities” since taking office this year.

“We have made a fair offer to the SCCA (Snohomish County Clerks’ Association) that is equal to the recent AFSCME agreement,” Somers said. “We will continue to work with the SCCA on finding a fair solution.”

The clerks’ association broke away from AFSCME in 2005. The following year, the clerks walked out over a contract impasse with the county administration.

All but three areas of Superior Court operations were shut down Monday, Presiding Judge Linda Krese said.

“Basically, we were trying to cover the things we’re mandated to do,” Krese said. “By law we can’t operate a court without a clerk.”

Diana Hefley contributed to this report. Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @NWhaglund.