C.S.E.A. Turns Down Contract

East Hampton Town’s Civil Service Employees Association voted down a four-year contract with the town on Aug. 6 in a landslide, 139-to-6, “no thanks” tally, just as town board members were ready to ratify it at a meeting the same day.

Miles Maier, the president of the C.S.E.A. chapter, called the vote “quite unprecedented” both for the turnout and for its outcome. Of the local organization’s 181 members, 145 cast votes, he said, on the proposed agreement, which was drafted by town and C.S.E.A. negotiating teams over almost a year.

The main point of contention, said Mr. Maier, who is a maintenance worker, concerned salaries and wage increases — in particular the removal of a step system by which employees would see individual salaries increase by a set amount each year. Under the most recent contract, which expired on Dec. 31, 2014, the guaranteed step increases continued for eight years.

The step system was eliminated in the new draft, Mr. Maier said, because the C.S.E.A. hoped “to get as much extra wage increase as possible.”

Town employees, who for years had seen annual average wage increases in the 3-percent range, were denied raises for several years under the previous town administration led by Supervisor Bill Wilkinson, while an effort to correct financial mismanagement in the previous administration of Supervisor Bill McGintee was under way.

The proposed contract called for a 2-percent wage increase the first year, followed by increases of 2.5 percent for the next two years, and a final, 2.25-percent increase. The new union contract is to cover the period from Jan. 1, 2015, retroactively through Dec. 31, 2018. It had been discussed over several months last fall before a tentative, verbal agreement was reached. A new contract was drafted with language “slowly but surely” honed as compromises were made over the months since December, Mr. Maier said.

The union negotiating committee will meet with a C.S.E.A. labor relations specialist on Tuesday for advice on how to proceed, but Mr. Maier said he hopes to sit down again soon with town officials to renegotiate.

The initial negotiating process, Mr. Maier  said, was “very civil, very pleasant,” and marked by “mutual respect,”  unlike negotiations, he said, in previous years.

“We’re always open to resolving issues,” Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell said early this week. Besides the percentage increase for salaries and step system, he said, matters under discussion included employee contributions to health insurance premiums and a salary incentive program.

The supervisor said that since he has been in office, a new contract with the East Hampton Town Police Benevolent Association had been successfully negotiated, with the town winning agreement for the first time that new employees will contribute to health insurance. In addition, another new contract had been finalized with the public safety dispatchers’ union.