CSEA members have been without a contract for almost three years
BREWSTER – Charging that county officials have been “dragging their feet,” more than 150 members of the Putnam County Local CSEA rallied outside the historic Putnam Courthouse in Carmel on Thursday evening demanding a new contract for rank and file members.
The county’s 350 CSEA members are charged with safeguarding vulnerable children and adults in the Department of Social Services, helping the elderly in the Office for Senior Resources, proving a variety of public health services in the Department of Health, maintaining county roads while handling emergency calls that are phoned to the county’s 911 center.
Union Local 8150 President Janet Canaday said she and her membership were “tired of fighting” for the past two years since the current contract expired on December 31, 2015. County negotiators have come to the table unprepared while canceling other meetings, she maintained. The last meeting took place on June 28. It wasn’t until October 24 that they received a response, Canaday said. The next negotiating session is November 15.”
Canaday said they are fighting for “a decent salary increase as well as longevity.” The union also wants retiree health insurance. “The longer we work, the more we pay and that philosophy is not showing any loyalty to employees,” she said, noting the bottom line is that “our members feel disrespected. We are what makes Putnam County run.”
The 2018-19 county budget calls for a two percent pay increase for management personnel, the third such increase. Canaday said “we get nothing other than the one percent longevity increase annually.”
Canaday said such a minor raise in salary was terribly unfair especially in the wake of last year’s 14 percent salary increase legislators gave themselves.
