Countywide : Unions Want Hearings on County’s Finances

Five county employee unions that are considering a combined strike decided Monday to formally request that the county participate in fact-finding hearings to investigate its ability to pay salary increases.

The unions discussed the possibility of the combined strike but agreed that each group should first give the county the option of avoiding a job action by submitting to the inquiry. The unions agreed to meet again next Monday.

Union officials say they do not believe the county’s claim that it cannot afford higher pay for its employees. But they said that if a mutually acceptable third party concludes after a fact-finding hearing that the county is correct, they will withdraw their wage demands.

“We’re trying to find out where reality lies,” said Fred Lowe, director of the Orange County Service Employees International Union. “We would be willing to live with whatever independent analysis a fact-finder comes up with.”

A fact-finding hearing means that a third party to the negotiations would hear arguments from both sides and then issue a report on the “facts.”

The sheriff’s deputies’ union has already requested that the county participate in a fact-finding hearing. But John Sibley, county director of employee relations, said “absolutely never” when asked about the proposal.

Sibley said that introducing a third party to the negotiations would take the decision-making process out of the hands of elected officials.