Kootenai Workers Talk About Organizing Success Of Deputies Inspires Solidarity

About 60 Kootenai County employees are moving to form a countywide association to campaign for better wages and benefits.

Frustrated by recent efforts to change their sick leave policy, the workers met Thursday night with some members of the deputy sheriff’s association.

County workers said their wages are stagnating and their jobs aren’t secure because, unlike city employees, their bosses are elected.

“Every two years, new people come in and they change whatever they want to on the backs of the employees,” said one courthouse worker.

Organizers plan to prepare a fledgling non-profit group by May that could represent all 535 county employees, said sheriff’s detective Ted Norgarden.

Workers said it wouldn’t be a formal union, because Idaho laws aren’t union-friendly. But they plan to push for changes in those laws.

“These people are tired of not having a voice,” he said.

While county leaders Friday downplayed the workers’ move, some officials seemed unnerved.

“I have no intention of bargaining with a group like that,” said Commissioner Dick Compton.

Idaho law wouldn’t require commissioners to negotiate with the group, but workers said a countywide association would carry lots of voting clout. Commissioners stand for re-election this fall.

Compton also said the county’s position on sick leave - which kicked off this move - was misunderstood. “It probably wasn’t handled all that well,” he said.

The county lets workers accrue sick days, but they often are used like vacation days, Compton said. The county primarily wanted sick leave to be used only when people were sick.

Few people objected to that goal, but more than 60 wrote letters objecting to other changes - like limits on days they can miss work because of a sick child.

“It wasn’t set in stone,” Compton said. “We wanted comment. We got it and we’re taking another look.”

County Clerk Dan English said workers may be underappreciated, but they are fairly compensated.

“I think they are treated well, but on the other hand I know they earn every penny they get.”

County Attorney Dennis Molenaar said he didn’t think it would do employees much good to organize, and said the number of people involved - about 10 percent of county workers - indicated interest was low.

“I don’t know what impact it would have,” he said.

But Deputy Assessor Mike McDowell, who attended Thursday’s meeting - “just to listen to the discussion” - saw things differently.

“It seems to me there’s a great deal of interest,” he said, although he plans to remain neutral.

District court workers said one of their bosses repeatedly ripped down a notice of Thursday’s meeting and demanded to know who was responsible.

“There are people who felt their jobs were threatened for even being at that meeting,” said Norgarden. “I wouldn’t be surprised to eventually see a minimum of 50 percent participation.”

Any county employees association formed would be the first of its kind in the state, said Tony Poinelli at the Idaho Association of Counties.

About 90 Coeur d’Alene city workers have had a bargaining group since 1976, but that was recognized by city ordinance. Sixty-six members pay $5 monthly dues.

“We’ve made a big difference,” said city employees association president Paula Eberle, a wastewater department secretary. “We have a 15-year career track program.”

She said county workers historically are paid less than city workers and “it’s time they took an affirmative stand.”

Norgarden pushed unsuccessfully seven years ago for a public employees union. The association idea is surfacing now in part because of the deputy sheriff’s association’s success last summer in getting higher wages. The association has about 100 members.

Although prohibited from striking, the non-profit group last summer picketed the commissioners’ office while off-duty and demanded higher wages. After two days, the sheriff and commissioners offered about $260,000 for wages.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: AT ISSUE Kootenai County employees have begun a campaign for better wages and benefits. An employee association being formed could represent some 535 workers and be the first of its kind in the state.