HIDDEN VALLEY LAKE >> The Hidden Valley Lake Association (HVLA) held a meeting with Lake County News and Record-Bee reporters Tuesday to give their side of the golf course contract negotiations story. During the briefing, the board members and general manager described the union”s depiction of the five-month-long negotiations as “way off” from the truth.
The contract between the union representing the golf course employees and the HVLA is set to expire Oct. 31 and negotiations began in mid-July. A handful of meetings between the two sides have brought little, if any, progress to the signing of a contract and the issue has quickly turned into a he-said, she-said maze of claims.
The Laborers International Union of North America Local 324, which represents the 15 Hidden Valley Lake Golf Course employees, contends the failure to reach an agreement rests solely with the HVLA and accuses the HVLA of demanding a more than $4 per hour cut in each employee package and failing to jointly schedule meetings to negotiate, among other claims.
However, the board members and general manager, Cindy Spears, rests the blame with the union and called the union”s accusations false, inflammatory and bizarre.
According to the board, the HVLA never requested a reduction in wages, but only a $1.95 per hour cut in health and welfare benefits, which it feels is fair as the union employees don”t contribute to retirement plans as other HVLA employees do.
Board President Bill Waite said the HVLA is seeking the cuts in benefits as members and residents have demanded golf course subsidies be reduced; the Hidden Valley Lake Golf Course”s budget has increased by 30 percent over the last three years and labor and benefit costs represent 66 percent of that increase, according to Waite.
The other changes to the contract were made as the “language in the current contract is very poor” and the HVLA felt cleaning up its language could avoid future costly disputes and protect the employees” health and safety, Spears said.
One of the changes included, Spears said, allows the HVLA to dismiss an employee who was caught sleeping on the job, while another requests employees not smoke on gasoline- or petroleum-powered vehicles. But the HVLA board said the union rejected every item on the HVLA”s proposed contract.
However, Laborers” Local 324 Vice President George Griffin said the union agreed to a handful of the changes in the HVLA”s proposal and did not reject it in its entirety as Spears claims. Additionally, there is already a provision in the current contract for a just termination if an employee is caught sleeping on the job and the union wouldn”t have argued the HVLA on that change in the first place, Griffin said. The change in the smoking policy also referred to banning the use of e-cigarettes, which was discussed at the table and the union did not have a problem with, according to Griffin.
The HVLA board also contends that during the first meeting in July, the union sent only a field agent, instead of an attorney or bargaining unit, to negotiations, and that while the union is allowed to appoint an employee as a shop steward, or someone to sit in on negotiations, it has chosen to not do so.
“Why would you not want employees to be involved in bargaining sessions,” Susan La Faver, who is doing consultant and public relations work for the HVLA, said. “If they had, the rumor mill would have been lessened and it could have filled some of these gaps in communication.”
But Griffin argues the union declined to have an employee at the table because in the past the HVLA has targeted that employee following negotiations. He also said it was the HVLA who requested the union not bring anyone else into negotiations as it attempted to impose a gag order on the union representatives.
“We can invite anyone we want and now that they”ve made that comment, we”ll invite anyone that we like,” Griffin said.
Spears said claims that the HVLA has failed to proved suggested meeting dates and locations is “absolutely incorrect” and described the association as happy to bargain in good faith while it applies no preconditions to the negotiations. However, the union has wanted to fax everything, instead of meeting face-to-face, she said.
Griffin claims the union has documentation for all the times it has sent requests to meet that have gone unanswered by the HVLA, though.
Waite said that the last session of negotiations, held Oct. 2 in Napa, lasted only 17 minutes and while the union representatives refused to look at the HVLA”s proposal, the meeting ended in the HVLA representatives being shouted at.
On the other side, Griffen argues the HVLA never furnished a proposal during that meeting and it was the HVLA representatives that did the verbal attacking.
“The third time they called our attorney a bully, he said ”we”re done talking; I”m not going to listen to their name-calling,” and walked out,” Griffin said.
The next round of negotiations is scheduled for Nov. 7, a full week after the contract”s expiration date.
