Now that Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon’s hardball tactics against the Superior Court clerks’ union have been declared illegal by a state examiner, it’s time for them to stop. Reardon should accept the ruling, along with responsibility for allowing the situation to get this far out of control.
Starr Knutson, a state examiner for the public Employment Relations Commission, ruled last week that Reardon and Deputy Executive Mark Soine wrongly delayed contract talks with the union and retaliated against it after it broke off from the larger union that represents county employees. Those are serious findings, and so was Knutson’s remedy. Rather than ordering the sides back to the table, she granted arbitration rights to the union.
Reardon has indicated he plans to appeal the ruling, and he has until Tuesday to do so. That would only prolong what has become a ridiculous and unnecessarily demoralizing fight.
When the roughly 80 members of the clerks’ union broke off from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), believing that union wasn’t adequately representing their interests, they took a calculated risk that they might not fare better on their own. Their chief miscalculation may have been political AFSCME and Reardon have a strong relationship.
Still, Reardon and Soine have a legal responsibility to bargain in good faith, and Knutson ruled they didn’t.
The record supports the ruling. The clerks’ contract expired at the end of 2004. AFSCME negotiated a new contract in 2005 that included a cap on employee medical costs, a benefit the clerks didn’t get. When County Clerk Pam Daniels suggested last summer that the sides bring in a neutral arbitrator to work through their impasse, the clerks agreed but the county said no. Knutson also cited delaying tactics by Soine and an instance where she said Reardon badmouthed the clerks’ union attorney at a hockey game.
Reardon picked an unnecessary fight here, and it has hurt the ability of the clerk’s office to hire and retain highly qualified employees. Two years of moving backward in wages and benefits compared with other county employees will have that effect.
Enough, already. Tough negotiations are fine, but in this case, serious lines have been crossed. Hardball is no longer an acceptable strategy.
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