After union vote, county has opportunity to listen, learn
By JEFF WEBB
Published May 4, 2003
After learning on Thursday night that he and his department managers had staved off the second attempt in three years by some Hernando County government workers to join a labor union, Administrator Richard Radacky called it "a vote of confidence."
If that sounds like he's gloating, he's not. Relieved probably is a better word for it.
And if I were him, that's exactly what I'd say and how I'd feel.
Who could fault him for being buoyed by the outcome? Representatives of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees worked very hard for the better part of a year to organize the 489 county employees who would have been eligible to join the union. Four-hundred-sixty employees rejected those efforts by voting 278-182 on Thursday to send AFSCME packing.
Radacky, with Human Resources Director Barbara Dupre as his field commander, launched an aggressive informational campaign to counteract AFSCME's push. Some folks, including me, believed the literature the county mailed to employees' homes crossed the line from being merely persuasive, to being words of warning. But the County Commission and its lawyers didn't see it that way, and when it comes right down to it, that's practically all that matters.
Still, Radacky, Dupre and the county commissioners would be ill-advised to interpret the results of Thursday's vote as a mandate to maintain the status quo. Without question, there are almost 200 employees who want change. There probably are that many more who would like better representation, but were ineligible or too timid to take a stand or were worried about paying union dues.
Collectively, these are the employees who feel disenfranchised, afraid to speak up, or if they did, that no one would care. Others feel vulnerable, that if they get on the wrong side of a boss or county commissioner, they could lose their job. Still others may just like the comfort and identity that comes from being part of a group and knowing somebody's got their backs.
Whatever their motivation or concerns, real or perceived, they are important and deserve to be addressed.
That makes this a prime opportunity for the County Commission and its staff to solicit employees' opinions and suggestions. An anonymous survey might be a good start. Brown-bag lunch sessions might be another. A county-monitored chat room on the Internet would yield some interesting discussions.
At a minimum, however, the commission needs to review how it educates employees about their rights in the workplace, how to solve grievances, and about opportunities to better themselves professionally. In addition to doing a more thorough job of disseminating that information to new employees, more continuing, formalized training is necessary.
It's not sufficient to hand an employee a new policy manual every year. Someone - preferably a trained communicator with a background in personnel procedures and/or labor law - needs to explain why the rules exist and spell out what happens when the rules are broken.
One person who sees the advantage to that improvement is Annette Doying, who was involved in a protracted personnel dispute in the Emergency Management Department before being forced to resign because of an unrelated incident.
In a letter to the Times last week, Doying, who is respected for her job skills even by those with whom she locked horns, said her experience taught her that ". . . employees are on their own to interpret their rights and responsibilities."
Doying goes on to cite what she sees contradictions in policies and inconsistencies in the way the rules are enforced at "the whims of the personal character and prejudices" of the human resources director and county administrator.
Sure, Doying's got an ax to grind; she lost a job she had worked hard to master. But she also makes a very good point.
Radacky is entitled to feel "confident" about the outcome of the union vote. Now it's time for him and the commissioners to share that entitlement with county employees - all of them, on both sides of this issue. It never hurts to listen and learn from your critics.
