EVERETT – About 2,000 Snohomish County employees are voting today and Wednesday on a labor contract that boosts salaries and freezes their sharply rising medical premiums.
The proposed 31/2-year contract covers everyone in county government including road workers and clerks, said Chris Dugovich, president and executive director of the Washington State Council of County and City Employees.
Fifteen different bargaining units will vote on the contract, making it the largest union agreement in the county outside of Boeing workers, Dugovich said.
The contract’s key provision is freezing medical costs, which in past years have risen at twice the rate of inflation, Dugovich said.
As a result, a basic medical plan for union members will stay slightly less than $200 a month for a family, Dugovich said.
At the same time, raises are proposed.
“At least these COLA (cost-of-living allowance) increases will not be taken away by the increases in the medical insurance,” Dugovich said.
Today’s vote comes just days after an independent salary commission recommended raises for the county’s 11 top elected officials.
County Executive Aaron Reardon declined to comment Friday on his recommended $16,300 raise, but broke his silence on Monday in a memo to county employees and the County Council.
“Any pay increase for our elected officials must be more in line with the level of pay raises being offered to Snohomish County’s 2,700 employees,” he wrote.
“This is quite an increase, much higher than I think is necessary,” Reardon said later.
County workers have been without a contract since Jan. 1. If approved, workers would receive a 2.5 percent raise retroactively for 2005, and a 2.19 percent raise next year.
In 2007 and 2008, raises will be based on 95 percent of the West Coast rate of inflation.
The contract is strongly recommended by union leadership, Dugovich said. Voting takes place at the County Courthouse and throughout the county and ends at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.
“We’ll go through the voting, count the ballots and hopefully we’ll have a contract,” Dugovich said.
County corrections officers and sheriff’s deputies negotiate separately and are currently without a contract.
Reporter Jeff Switzer: 425-339-3452 or jswitzer@heraldnet.com.
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