For the past 16 years, Lucia Simon has walked from her home in Hicksville to her job at the Hicksville Public Library. She enjoys her job as a librarian and says that the staff has become like family to her. But for the past three years, Simon and 56 fellow co-workers have been frustrated at what she says is the library’s board refusal to negotiate a fair contract.
“We have had no contract in three years. They refuse to bargain with us. Every time they come back to us it’s not fair,” says Simon.
However, the board of trustees disagree, saying that it has made a “fair offer.”
“The board of trustees is committed to negotiating an agreement with its employees that is both fair to them and to the taxpayers, while keeping in mind the state-imposed tax cap and the significant increases in the costs of pension and health insurance contributions,” said the board’s legal counsel Tom Wassel.
Librarians, clerks and custodians at the library have been working with an expired contract for the past three years. CSEA union negotiators, including Simon, have come to the bargaining table asking for retro pay and a cap on how much staff would have to pay into health insurance.
One major issue the CSEA has with the proposed contract is that they feel the suggested salary increases will not cover the new health insurance costs. CSEA member and librarian Richard Vizza says any increase would amount to almost nothing with employees paying into health insurance.
“Anyone making less than $45,000—which is half of them—would be losing money. A lot of people didn’t pay health care, now they would be paying up to 10 percent. With the raise, people on the low end [of the salary scale] would be losing money or breaking even over the next 3 years,” says Vizza.
However, Wassel says that the proposed contract will provide a net increase for all employees.
“We’re proposing a small contribution which would be more than covered by raises. Even the lowest paid would receive an increase,” says Wassel. “There’s a raise for every employee in the bargaining unit, which includes health insurance. Any statement to the contrary is a misunderstanding or misrepresentation.”
Simon says the employees don’t mind paying into the health insurance, but had concerns that it wouldn’t be capped. But Wassel says that there is a 10 percent cap in place.
“The [health insurance] contribution would be phased in over a number of years and would not total more than 10 percent of the insurance premium at the end of that period,” said the board in an open letter to the community that was released on their website.
The CSEA is also asking that the board provide retro pay for the past three years, which the board says it would not pay. Wassel says a majority of employees have received increases over the past three years of negotiations.
“From the outset of negotiations, the Library Board has advised the CSEA’s negotiators that it would not award back pay, and wage increases would only be paid upon reaching an agreement. The CSEA’s numerous delays in reaching an agreement have resulted in no wage increases for only 25 percent of the staff during the past three years; however, the other 75 percent have received “step” increases, which were agreed to by the Board in prior contracts, every July for three years,” says Wassel.
