Politics & Government

Village, Police Union Headed to Arbitration Over New Contract

For months Caledonia officials have been saying they want police and fire union employees to pay what the non-union employees are paying toward pension and health care costs, but those provisions are not included in the village's "final" offer

After months of trying to settle the contract, the village and the union are officially at an impasse and asking the state to intervene.

The Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the union that represents  Caledonia police employees, and village officials handed in their final offers into Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission on March 31. Now the two sides are waiting for the offers to be certified before they pick an arbitrator, who will choose between the two offers and make the final decision.

But neither offer calls for police union members paying 5.9 percent of their wages into their state pensions in 2012 or 2013. That's surprising because several trustees had made it clear earlier that police officers should be contributing to their pensions — just like other village employees

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In the last year Gov. Scott Walker exempted union-represented public safety employees from having to make the concessions that other public workers do.

But in November, the to pay 5.9 percent of their wages into their state pensions, and increase their portion that they pay for their insurance premium from 10 to 15 percent just as the non-union represented employees do.

Find out what's happening in Caledoniawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Yet, no such provisions appeared in the village's final offer submitted to the state.

The village’s offer would extend the expired contract the union is currently working under and doesn’t ask for the police union personnel to pay 5.9 percent pension. The insurance plan has a village-paid $1,000 health reimbursement account that kicks in after a $250 deductible. But police union employees also have a high deductible insurance plan that is higher than the non-represented employees have.

The one-year deal proposed by the village also does not include any raises.

In the tentative agreement that has now become the union’s final offer, the union is asking for a 2 percent salary raise for the next three years. In return, employees would pay just under 2 percent of their salaries into pensions for 2012, just under 4 percent in 2013, and 5.9 percent in 2014.

The offer would also increase the contribution to their health insurance from 10 to 11 percent 2013, and 12 percent 2014 for a lower deductible plan than employees have now.

Prior to the arbitration process, members of the village's Personnel Committee and union negotiators had a tentative agreement on March 8. But most of the Village Board did not to accept the contract. The union still ratified the tentative agreement on March 15 and submitted it to the state as their final offer.

During that time, Tom Weatherston, a Village Board member, said he took issue with the tentative agreement because it gave union-represented public safety employees raises.

“I have a moral issue with giving one segment (of our employees) a raise — with the guys in the engineering and highway departments, and all of the rest of the non-represented staff having no pay raise and paying their share of their pension — they are paying out of pocket for those things,” Weatherston said. “And I have a moral issue with giving protective services a raise when the others are taking a hit like that.”

But if an arbitrator decides that a contract calling for pay increases with an offset with pension payments is the best choice, he would be OK with the decision, Weatherston said.

Bob West, a contract advocate consultant to the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, said the process could take up to six months before a decision is made by the state and the price tag could cost taxpayers up to $20,000.

“Both parties rather quickly indicated that they didn’t want to amend their offers,” West said.

West added that he’s “bewildered” as to why the Village Board didn’t accept the tentative agreement, but he’s comfortable with the union’s position.

“Arbitration is never a sure thing, but I feel very comfortable with our position on this,” West said. “If you can’t bargain in good faith, it makes the bargaining process a joke… and it erodes the trust you have to have at the bargaining table.

"Why were we dealing with personnel committee in the first place if they weren’t in a position to negotiate?" he asked. "Obviously, they didn’t send people in position of power to negotiate and next time maybe we need to ask for the Village Board.”


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