Union delays vote on wage cut

Union members were scheduled to vote on the proposed pay cuts earlier this week. They now will cast their ballots Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

About 5,500 union workers would be affected, and the pay reductions would save an estimated $8 million in a year.

Union leaders postponed the membership vote after county commissioners decided at their March 15 meeting to delay action on managers’ and nonunion workers’ pay cuts to give these affected employees a chance to testify.

Commissioners will hear comments Tuesday before voting on nonunion pay cuts, which would save roughly $3 million a year.

“The agreement was always based on the idea there would be a (wage) reduction in the management,” said Nick Di Archangel, spokesman for the Service Employees International Union Local 1107. “When the (commission) vote was postponed, we decided we needed to wait.”

Proposed pay cuts for everyone, including managers, would go into effect in mid-April. The agreements would clear the way for the county and union to bargain for renewing the labor contract, set to expire in July.

Di Archangel said delaying the vote proved beneficial because it gave leaders a chance to answer workers’ many questions about the wage reductions.

Commissioner Steve Sisolak expressed mixed views about the union’s proposal.

He said he likes that the union is offering a concession but opposes continuing to give workers merit and cost-of-living raises that, in his view, negate much of the savings.

“You’re taking a 2 percent pay cut in one hand and giving back 2 percent or 4 percent pay increases in the other,” Sisolak said. “Any (wage) increase needs to be frozen. Otherwise, I don’t think it’s a reduction.”

But Di Archangel argued that even with the raises, a pay cut still puts cash in the county’s coffers.

“A 2 percent reduction on top of inflation is significant,” he said.

Contact reporter Scott Wyland at swyland@reviewjournal.com or 702-455-4519.