Spokane County Workers Will Vote On Strike Nov. 7 About 1,000 Employees Represented By Unions

FOR THE RECORD (November 2, 1996): CORRECTION: Spokane County District Court judges hired an attorney to represent them in court battles stemming from an labor dispute. A Friday story incorrectly identified the judges.

Unions representing about 1,000 Spokane County workers will vote Thursday whether to authorize a strike.

“We could go out at any time after that,” unless something breaks a deadlock between union negotiators and management, said union representative Bill Keenan.

A strike could affect everything from the amount of time it takes to get a building permit to street repairs and slow plowing.

Union workers staged an “informational picket” Thursday, carrying signs reading, “Fight Crime, Not Employees.”

They also passed out fliers saying the county has spent $33,347 on attorney fees fighting the union. That figure could not be confirmed Thursday, but Superior Court judges have hired an attorney to battle the union.

Most of the marchers were on their lunch breaks; others used vacation time.

About 10 marched in front of the courthouse at noon. Keenan said there were more at other locations on the county campus.

“We had 101 (pickets) at lunch. We had the whole building surrounded,” he said. “I’m not blowing smoke or inflating it (the number).”

Prosecutor Jim Sweetser, the target of much of the animosity, was skeptical.

“I heard there were something like five,” he said.

Union representatives want one contract for all 1,000 employees. Union members last month ratified one that was negotiated with county commissioners, but Sweetser and the judges obtained a restraining order preventing county commissioners from signing it.

The prosecutor and judges contend that since they’re elected officials, only they can negotiate a contract, not commissioners. In addition, Sweetser says his deputies are political appointees who don’t have collective bargaining rights.

Several issues are being debated in court.

There were no deputy prosecutors among the pickets Thursday. Keenan said that’s because Sweetser threatened to “immediately terminate” any of his employees who even talked to a picket.

“They stayed away and were very upset,” Keenan said. “Here’s a guy who was elected to uphold free speech, ordering his employees not to participate.”

Sweetser denied the charge, which could not be confirmed through deputy prosecutors. Sweetser said he and his top assistants decided it would be inappropriate for employees to wear union buttons in the office, but didn’t discuss the picket line.

If his employees stayed away from Thursday’s march, it’s because “they know that they’re deputy prosecutors and they need to support the elected prosecutor,” Sweetser said.

Asked whether his deputies would have been punished for participating, Sweetser said, “I can’t answer that. It (the situation) didn’t come up.”

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