The Town of Bethlehem and its telecommunicators union have come to a three-year contract agreement after going a full year without a contract in place.
The contract includes a 2 percent salary increase beginning in January for 2014, but the town’s emergency dispatchers will not receive a cost of living increase for the two years prior. In return, the town agreed to increase tuition reimbursement from a maximum of $2,000 a year to a maximum of $4,000 a year and supply four uniforms per year instead of two.
“I was very glad we could reach agreements with two of the three public safety unions,” said Supervisor John Clarkson. “These agreements involved some give and take on both sides, but the result was fair and reasonable.”
Union members will also contribute more towards their health insurance premiums. Staring in 2014, members will contribute 10 percent for individual coverage and 20 percent for family coverage. This will result in an immediate savings of $1,600 to the town, with a savings of $14,000 over the lifespan of the contract.
“Obviously, it is not what we wanted,” said Telecommunications Union President Jenn Peters. “We are getting no raises until 2014, which is tough, and we have to deal with the health insurance increases that will cancel each other out, but we realize the sergeants didn’t get a much better contract.”
Peters said she feels understaffing is still a major issue that needs to be addressed because overtime is being used regularly. The Police Department previously operated with 12 dispatchers and a supervisor. Through attrition, there are now nine employees and no supervisor. A union goal had been to regain staffing levels or add positions.
“Going into negotiations is frustrating because they’re not willing to work with us,” Peters said. “There’s been a huge change in working conditions for us, and obviously there is a huge fiscal element to it and I get that completely and wholeheartedly. We try to come to fair agreements. We went there with few demands and asked for nothing extravagant.”
Clarkson said he believes the deal was fair. It leaves only the police officer’s union — the largest of the three public safety bargaining units — without a contract.
“Difficult financial times put pressure on employees as well as management, but I think we’ve made the right choices this year and I expect the strain on employee relations to ease over time,” he said. “We are grateful for the service of our highly professional police force and all other town employees.”
Peters said she feels public safety is in jeopardy with the lower staffing levels and decisions are being made from purely a monetary standpoint.
“We can’t just not answer a call. Time is of the essence,” she said. “Our job has become very difficult with the budget cuts… There is going to be a time when something does go unanswered and we will not be responsible for the outcome.”
Meanwhile, Albany County and the town are continuing negotiations to consolidate Bethlehem’s operations into the county. County Executive Dan McCoy made consolidation one of his main goals after taking office and quickly brought dispatching for the cities of Watervliet and Cohoes under the county’s umbrella. Clarkson has said consolidation throughout the town is key to cut costs and running things more efficiently.
Consolidating dispatch services with the county would save the town money since the county would pay the salaries of employees and the town would pay a fee for the service of dispatchers. The county would save money by reducing its overall number of dispatchers.
Peters said the union has no control over the consolidation, but she and Clarkson reported consolidation talks have stalled because of logistics. The county and town each use a different records system. Time and money would be needed to make them compatible. The county also is in need of space because its telecommunications operation has yet to be moved into Clarksville with the new sheriff’s station.
“I really think it’s only a matter of time,” said Peters.
Clarkson said his goal is to not consolidate until it can be done responsibly and one of his goals would be that none of the Bethlehem dispatchers lose their jobs. However, positions would eventually have to be trimmed somewhere.
“There are efficiencies,” Clarkson said. “They think they can do the job with eight people. We have more than that now here … you attrit down is what you would do.”
Peters, though, does not believe lower staffing is appropriate.
“The county is overwhelmed as it is. If we did go to county the level of service, it would be drastically different and I don’t know what the savings would be,” she said.