By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County Commissioners on June 23 unanimously approved a three-year contract with Laborers’ International Union of North America Local 630 offering a $4,703 increase in base pay over the life of the agreement.
LIUNA reached an agreement when the county withdrew its original proposal to establish a $10,000 maximum health insurance contribution annually per employee.
The agreement instead calls for the county commission and LIUNA members to split the cost of future health insurance premium increases over $10,000, with the county picking up 85 percent and employees 15 percent.
County Coordinator Wilbur Dean said the pay raises are spread across all positions in the workforce, which means starting employees receive the same increase as senior employees.
He said the county was having trouble hiring people with the low pay scale for starting positions.
“This will go to all the different pay grades,” Dean said.
The pay increase is broken down by year with employees receiving $3,203 for wages and insurance the first year, $500 for wages the second year, and $1,000 for wages the third year.
Dean said the board is actually paying less than $10,000 per employee for health insurance but he said that could easily change in the future.
“In the future with increases to the insurance premium the board’s obligation would be more than that,” Dean said. “It makes the board sharpen its pencil when it comes to insurance coverage and makes the employees who have a stake in it look at the various insurance options to see what is best for them.”
Dean said LIUNA 630 members voted unanimously to approve the contract. The benefits cover the road department, landfill, transit, and parks, and other employees, a total of well over 100 in employees.
The county has declared an impasse with the other public labor union in county government, the International Association of Firefighters Local 4069, which represents county paramedics, EMTs, and firefighters in the Department of Public Safety.
The county’s last offer to IAFF included a $10,000 maximum contribution for each employee’s health insurance. The union rejected the proposal and hasn’t made a counter offer.
“We have not heard from them,” he said. “It’s still at the $10,000 cap but we’re waiting to hear from them.”
LIUNA Business Manager Ronnie Burris could not be reached for comment nor could officers in the IAFF.
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Board of County Commission Budget Workshop June 16, 2020; Posted June 28, 2020
