MT. VERNON (WMIX) – The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and the Jefferson County Board and Sheriff’s Office have entered into arbitration over a recent hire the union says was a violation of the county contract.
According to a press release from the union, AFSCME objected to Jefferson County Sheriff Jeff Bullard’s recent action to “wrongfully install a hand-picked candidate in a county job without first posting the position as required by the county’s union contract.”
AFSCME says it pursued the established grievance process to remedy the action. But instead of working amicably toward a resolution, the County Board is instead forcing the matter to go to arbitration and has hired a Seattle, Washington attorney to fight the union.
Bullard responded to the union’s press release saying it’s common in the collective bargaining process that sometimes unions and management disagree on what contract language says and means.
He says this is one of these instances and they look forward to the arbitration process to defend their position.
The union, however, says the sheriff and the board are wasting time and taxpayer dollars.
AFSCME staff representative Matthew Whalen said their contract requires that every job is posted publicly for a period of time, to allow everyone a fair chance to apply and to ensure that politicians can’t simply play favorites.
AFSCME Local 3664 represents 80 Jefferson County employees.
