The Montgomery County Children Services union is expected to vote Wednesday on whether to accept a final contract offer from the county. The county’s last offer to the Professionals Guild of Ohio includes an across-the-board wage increase for all employees. However, not all workers would receive that pay increase in the same manner.
Workers below the maximum pay level would receive a 5 percent increase up to the top pay level and receive the rest in a lump sum payout. Workers already at the highest possible pay level would receive the full 5 percent increase as a lump sum payout, and those well below their highest allowable pay would receive the increase through their regular paychecks.
Local PGO president Jane Hay says, overall, some union members are disappointed in the bargaining process that’s taken place in the last few months. A Montgomery County judge barred the PGO union from striking after a brief walkout earlier in the summer and sent both sides back to the bargaining table.
“Each member gets a vote and they have to vote their conscience,” she said. "They have to do what's best for their families, you know, and that's the best we can do. We have to put it in our members hands and then the majority rules, and then we'll go from there.”
Brianna Wooten with Montgomery County says Common Pleas Judge Richard S. Skelton has required county officials to file a contingency plan should both parties fail to reach an agreement.
Wooten could not say what that plan might be.
“We are grateful that union leadership has decided to take our final offer of 5 percent for all union employees to a vote and we just look forward to see what the outcome is,” she said.
A vote on the contract is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Wednesday.
