Similarities between making sausage and negotiating a union contract

This writer has enjoyed a variety of working experiences over the years, including being elected to the Wisconsin State Legislature, the Sheboygan County Board – and making sausage. The implication (humorous, I hope) is you don’t want to watch legislation or sausage being made – it is the end product that is important. As in most comparisons, there is some truth to the saying.

Let’s take a moment to look at the monthly meeting of the Sheboygan County Board of Aug. 18. (It will soon be posted on the county Web site for all to view.)

At that meeting, two union and county contracts were up for a vote; a situation wherein the whole Board generally tends to support the agreement that has been worked out by weeks and months of contract negotiations between the union and county supervisors on the Human Resources Committee.

But that was not the case for the Rocky Knoll Heath Care Facility contract. That one inspired a rather long and heated debate.

As background, Sheboygan County has a number of unions that represent different county workers, such as nurses, social workers, highway department, county nursing home and others. Each of these groups has long followed the standard procedures to organize and has a legal right to bargain for wages, vacations, working conditions and other issues. It is the law.

Unlike the private sector, the state Legislature made it illegal for these workers to strike to achieve their demands. They set up a system whereby both sides would bargain and, if they did not come to an agreement, an arbitrator would be assigned to try to work things out. If that failed, both sides would be asked to give their “last best offer.” Using a set of standards the arbitrator would review the two offers and would select one (the arbitrator could not modify the contract offers). It is the way it works – and changing the system would take state legislative action.

There are some strong opinions on how the system should work. Some people don’t like the union contracts or feel unions should have fewer rights in the bargaining process, while others feel strongly that unions are important and necessary.

Then there are those who feel an arbitrator should be able to combine the two contract offers, should allow strikes to take place, or decide only on local economic conditions (to mention some options discussed). But, by law, Sheboygan County or any state county cannot just make up the rules as they wish; they must follow the bargaining rules set by the state.

I feel that under the present system Sheboygan County supervisors who are assigned to work with contracts do a decent job.

Which comes to the issue I would like to discuss in today’s column: county union contracts.

As they are worked out by the supervisors on the Sheboygan County Human Resources Committee, with the help of Michael Collard, director of the Human Service Department, contracts need to come before the full Sheboygan County Board for a vote. When the contract with the Rocky Knoll Health Care Facility staff came up, it sparked a major debate before it finally passed.

Most county contracts are for a year or two. But the Rocky Knoll Health Care Facility contract is for four years and includes a requirement that Rocky Knoll cannot be sold during those four years. It has language that does allow the county to close the facility for some highly specialized reasons. In return, those county workers accepted a wage increase of 2 percent for each of the contract years – lower then other agreed-upon county contracts.

The county taxpayers saved money and the workers at Rocky Knoll gained a comfort level (after the major staff disruptions with the sale of the county’s Sunny Ridge Nursing Home). It apparently gave workers and their families peace of mind and they were willing take a smaller wage increase because of that.W

ith no issue for the sale of the Rocky Knoll Heath Care Facility, and none planned, it seemed like a safe thing to add to the contract. After the debate and the realization that any alternative “last best offer” contract would likely cost taxpayers more for years to come, it passed on a strong vote.

If you don’t like to watch sausage being made, you may not want to watch the Aug. 18 Sheboygan County Board union contract debate on the county Web site.

On the other hand, you may find it interesting and educational.