Commissioners, striking JFS workers trade blame, words over 3-month work stoppage

Lorain County commissioners and striking county Job and Family Services workers continued their battle of words Friday as the ongoing strike by United Auto Workers Local 2192 neared the three-month mark. Commissioners on Friday issued a prepared statement, which Commissioner Jeff Riddell read out loud at the board's scheduled meeting. He said his board would not publicly debate with striking JFS workers who have been showing up to their regularly-scheduled meetings twice per week every other week. JFS workers, meanwhile, asked commissioners to restart contract negotiations. The workers are striking over wages, healthcare costs and staffing concerns. They have said they want $1 more per hour in pay per employee and members also are picketing the County Administration Building in downtown Elyria and JFS headquarters on North Ridge Road in Elyria Township. Commissioners have said the county is in a budget crisis and that they have made their last, best and final offer to the union. Negotiations, fact-finding and state-mandated mediation all have failed. Both sides have accused each other of unfair labor practices. Commissioners "did not negotiate for a strike. It doesn't get the work done, and as we see, no one wins," Riddell read from Friday's statement. "Rehashing details that got us to this point is not appropriate or productive. Suffice it to say that the demands at the table were grossly in excess of what we had available. A strike vote was called before we had finished talks, and a deadline was set before a final offer could be given. This resulted in an impasse and led us to the last, best, and final offer, which, contrary to statements, was an improvement over the initial county position," Riddell said. Someone in the audience made a noise, so Riddell paused briefly to warn against "catcalls." He said he would have a sheriff's deputy remove anyone who interrupted him. "We did not push for a strike," Riddell continued. "Providing service to those who need county services is important to us, but we are not the ones off the job. And satisfactory settlements were reached with 11 other bargaining units, with all of them remaining on the job to serve their constituents." Riddell added that the county is seeking to fix "dated" wage rates and wage schedules, that new hires will not be making more than staff currently out on strike and that an attendance bonus is meant to correct "absenteeism issues ... we felt necessary to address." "Negotiations do not go on indefinitely, impasses do occur, and in such cases, a last, best offer is entirely unremarkable. What is remarkable is that none of the things that recent speakers now claim would lead to resolution were ever formally proposed by the union but are simply an attempt to rewrite history to appear more reasonable to the public," he said. Union officials and members responded by asking commissioners and the county to return to the bargaining table. "The commissioners continue to distort the record to cover up that they walked away from the table and created this service crisis while adding $8.9 million in six figure administrative positions countywide," UAW Local 2192 JFS chairwoman Gina Jones told The Chronicle-Telegram in response to the county's statement. Critical services are overwhelmed or not being done, she said, with JFS workers not able to inspect daycares or investigate elder abuse cases. The union "negotiated in good faith and had more movement to make to get to a settlement. The commissioners rejected the state-appointed fact finder report and then refused to bargain," Jones said. "Only the commissioners have the power to restore good county services, but they have to be willing to talk. This could be settled for a dollar," she said, with dozens of JFS workers quitting in the last five years, some were surviving on an office food bank and others applying for and receiving the same services, including Medicaid, that they administer to county residents. "This crisis can and must be resolved for Lorain JFS workers and Lorain County residents," Jones said. Striking JFS worker Candace MacIntosh used her minutes during Friday's public comment period to tell commissioners that they are harming the poor and vulnerable in the community. "Your indifference is not neutral. It has consequences," she said, reading from a prepared statement. MacIntosh said what commissioners are doing is "not government" but "abandonment." All three commissioners are Republicans, and she criticized their actions while also appealing to the purported Christian values of their party. MacIntosh said there is "a philosophy often associated with your politics: Those who cannot keep up, deserve to fall behind." "When policy becomes a tool to sort the worthy from the unworthy, it stops being leadership and starts becoming cruelty dressed up as principle," MacIntosh said, "and since many who share your political identity also claim a foundation in Christian values, let's speak plainly about those teachings." Feed the hungry, give to those who ask, be generous to the poor, MacIntosh said, giving accompanying Bible verses. "These are not abstract ideals. They are clear moral directives. Yet those values are nowhere to be found in what we are witnessing from this board," she said. "I am not a Christian, but I do believe in accountability. To each other, to our community and to the consequences of our choices. Return to the table. Do you job." Sandra Jensen, a striking JFS worker and member of the Sheffield-Sheffield Lake Board of Education, told commissioners on Friday that they all need to get back to the bargaining table "one way or another." "Let's be dignified and all get to the table. I think you three should come but if you send your people, whatever. Let's just make an effort, OK? Let's just get this done," Jensen said. "Let's just get professional. Leave a good legacy."This article has been corrected. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com