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In
an effort to continue to thwart the rights of County employees,
Ozaukee County Sheriff Maurice Straub filed a Temporary Injunction
against OPEIU Local 35 to prevent the Union from
proceeding with our WERC complaint and Request for Arbitration. (To Read a copy of the Complaint Click
here)
- Why
did the sheriff file for this order?
The
sheriff apparently continues to believe that he is not subject to
the collective bargaining laws of the State of Wisconsin.
- What
does this mean for the affected employees?
In granting the order, the judge did not rule on
the facts of our case; instead he granted an injunction to delay
the WERC proceedings and the grievance filed for the Cooks until
the court ruled on the constitutional issue raised by the Sheriff.
The Sheriff believes that under the laws prescribed in the
State of
Wisconsin
constitution, he does not have to comply with the terms of our
contract with the County.
- We have had a union
contract for a long time and the Sheriff has never raised this
type of objection before, why now?
Of course we can't answer for the Sheriff,
however, it appears that Sheriff doesn't want to be accountable
for his decisions or actions.
We
remain committed to protecting jobs and holding county officials
accountable for their actions. As is evident from our bargaining
proposals, the issue of subcontracting of County jobs will be a
major factor in our negotiations with the County. (To
read Copies of our proposals, click here).
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Ozaukee County Sheriff's
Department employees spoke at an Ozaukee County Board meeting to express their dissatisfaction with the Sheriff's recent
decision to subcontract out their jobs. |
| Two employees wondered openly if
the true costs of the Sheriff's decision had been evaluated.
They also spoke about their years of dedication and service to the
County and their frustration with the Sheriff's
decision. |
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| These employees also
commented that the County had not lived up to its contractual
obligation to consider any Union proposals when deciding whether
or not to subcontract out jobs.
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On Monday,
March 27, 2006, 8 Ozaukee County jail cooks were informed that as
of May 1, 2006, an outside company ,CBM, would take over food
service operations at the Ozaukee County jail.
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| Sheriff Straub told
the workers their position with the County would end as of April
30, 2006.
In a letter to Local 35 dated March 13,
2006, the County stated “This letter is to inform you that
Ozaukee County is engaged in a study to enter into a contract with
a private firm to operate the food service operations within the
Sheriff’s Department. Should the County enter into a contract
with a private firm it would eliminated a number of positions
within your bargaining unit”. The union was told by the County
that this information was confidential and they were going to
schedule a meeting with the employees.
Local 35 responded by requesting
information. Without the detailed information that went into the
County’s request for a proposal from outside contractors, it
would be difficult to analyze the costs. We also retained a
consultant from the University of Wisconsin, School for workers to
assist us in working with this issue. In response, we received
limited information from the County.
On March 23, 2006 Judy Burnick e-mailed the
County and again stated that we have valid questions concerning
the CBM cost estimates. Burnick stated that Local 35 would provide
a proposal to the County after we spoke with the workers, received
a copy of the detailed proposal from CBM and analyzed the
information. Until we could meet with the workers, we asked the
County to consider what we believed the true cost of the outside
vendor would be. (A copy of this estimate is
printed below.) Our objection to the subcontracting of the
work to CBM included the following statements:
“We believe that the CBM estimate does not
include the true labor costs that CBM will have to pay. Their
proposal to Ozaukee County may deliberately underestimate the true
cost in order to obtain the contract. Eventually these costs will
be passed on to the County. Alternatively, CBM may intend to use
jail inmates as the main providers of labor under their proposal.
As currently presented, their estimates of direct cost to the
County do not make sense. It would be a dereliction of duty on the
part of any County official to accept these cost estimates at face
value without further inquiry into their derivation”
On Monday, March 27, 2006, the Sheriff
provided the union with a copy of the proposal from CBM. The
proposal from CBM was dated February 23, 2006. It is clear that
the Sheriff and the County had no intention of considering a
proposal from the workers. Local 35 was not notified when the “Request
for Proposal” was developed to contract this work out. Earlier
this year, when the cooks noticed Aramark Food Service touring the
jail, they questioned it and were told by their Lieutenant that
there was nothing to worry about, their jobs would never be
contracted out.
Local 35 is now working with our attorney to
file a prohibited practice complaint against the County with the
Wisconsin Employee Relations Commission. We will also be filing a
grievance against the County. It is clear that by their actions
the County violated our collective bargaining agreement.
What is the true cost
to Ozuakee County of the CBM Proposal?
| OPEIU 35 Analysis of
Actual Cost of CBM Proposal |
| CBM Contracted Services: |
| Estimates of Direct
Cost |
| Estimated Cost of Jail
Meals $274,000 |
| Estimated Cost of Senior
Meals $108,300 |
| Total Estimated Cost
$382,300 |
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This figure can be broken down as follows:
| Profit and Administrative
Expense (Estimated profit rate) 3% |
| (Estimated administrative
expense rate) 15% |
| Estimated CBM Profit and
Administrative Expense $68,814 |
| Food and Supplies (Ozaukee
Co. 2006 budget request) $264,000 |
| Estimated discount from
mass purchasing) 10% |
| Estimated CBM food and
supplies cost $237,600 |
| Balance available for
Wages and Benefits $75,886 |
| NOTE: At current staffing
levels this would result in an average hourly compensation
level for wages and benefits of ($75,886/17,212 hrs): $4.41 |
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| CBM must explain how they
will be able to hire and retain workers at a level of
compensation that is less than the minimum wage. |
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| CBM Contracted Services:
Estimates of Indirect Costs |
| Unemployment compensation
current employees (4% of quarterly earnings) $70,200 |
| Public health care costs
of CBM employees $61,776 |
| Other county services for
laid off employees (training, legal, childcare, etc.)
$27,000 |
| TOTAL $158,976 |
| CBM Contracted Services:
Estimated Total Cost $541,276 |
| We believe the CBM
estimate does not include the true labor costs that CBM will
have to pay. Their proposal to Ozaukee County may
deliberately underestimate the true cost in order to obtain
the contract. Eventually these costs will be passed on to
the County. Alternatively, CBM may intend to use jail
inmates as the main providers of labor under their proposal.
As currently presented, their estimates of direct cost to
the County do not make sense. It would be a dereliction of
duty on the part of any County official to accept these cost
estimates at face value without further inquiry into their
derivation. |
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