{"id":6487,"date":"2013-03-21T16:20:24","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T20:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=6487"},"modified":"2013-03-21T16:20:24","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T20:20:24","slug":"commissioners-take-aim-at-chester-countys-elderly-and-disabled-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=6487","title":{"rendered":"Commissioners take aim at Chester County\u2019s elderly and disabled, again"},"content":{"rendered":"

To The Editor:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Letters1\"<\/a>The Chester County Commissioners have once again demonstrated their disregard for the county\u2019s elderly population and residents with special needs, not to mention county taxpayers.\u00a0 On Friday, March 15th the Commissioners continued their ongoing and disturbing pattern of taking advantage of the hardworking men and women at the Department of Human Services.<\/p>\n

DHS has many departments, which include Aging, Children, Youth and Families, and Mental Health and Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.\u00a0 The employees of DHS are charged with caring for the most vulnerable among us.\u00a0 They are there for our families, our friends, our neighbors and us when we need them the most.<\/p>\n

Despite the vital services that these individuals provide to taxpayers, the employees of DHS have not received a pay raise since they voluntarily de-certified from SEIU in 2009.\u00a0 In fact, the only pay increase they have received came in the form of a 1-2% \u201cbonus\u201d given to them in 2011 in exchange for voting \u201cno\u201d to union representation.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the employees at DHS have watched their unionized counterparts throughout County government receive raises year after year.\u00a0 For example, union detectives just received a pay increase of 12% over the next four years, while union court workers received a total of 10.5% in raises over the past three years.<\/p>\n

In light of this ongoing discrimination, the employees at DHS are once again considering union representation, this time with Teamsters Local 384.\u00a0 Despite tight budgets, the County has miraculously found the resources to offer these employees a small (2%) salary increase in exchange for a \u201cno\u201d vote on union representation.\u00a0 In addition, the County is spending tens of thousands in taxpayer dollars to hire anti-union consultants to combat the DHS employees\u2019 attempts to insure fair compensation.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the exact amount of fees paid to these consultants is unknown at this time because the County Commissioners are dodging the Commonwealth\u2019s \u201cRight to Know\u201d law by hiring these consultants through the law firm of the County Solicitor.<\/p>\n

The County Commissioners have clearly demonstrated to them that they will use any means necessary, including outright deception, to avoid doing what all Chester County taxpayers know is the right thing to do.\u00a0 They have left DHS employees no choice but to stand up for themselves and their families by unionizing.<\/p>\n

Chester County is the wealthiest county in Pennsylvania, and among the 15 wealthiest counties in the United States.\u00a0 They have the resources to insure that everyone in our community is taken care of and dealt with fairly, and that all county residents receive the highest level of service available. However, our elected leaders are not working to insure that we receive the level of services to which we are entitled.\u00a0 Despite the county\u2019s wealth, Chester County DHS employees are the lowest paid in the 5-county Philadelphia area.<\/p>\n

Chester Countians expect our elected officials to be responsible stewards of our tax dollars.\u00a0 This includes helping our families when they are in crisis, taking care of our elderly, children and the disabled, being accountable to taxpayers, and dealing fairly with county workers.<\/p>\n

Our County Commissioners are failing us.\u00a0 The services provided by the hardworking men and women at DHS are vital to our community and integral to our Chester County values.\u00a0 The county has left the DHS employees without options.\u00a0\u00a0 These are the people who help our families when we need them most.\u00a0 In order to stand up for their own families, they must unionize. The taxpayers of Chester County need to stand with the DHS employees as they seek to receive fair treatment in the workplace.\u00a0\u00a0 We must stand with them when they need us so that we know they will be there when we need them.<\/p>\n

Chris O’Donnell<\/strong>
\n Organizer\/Business Agent<\/strong>
\n Teamsters Local Union 384<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To The Editor: The Chester County Commissioners have once again demonstrated their disregard for the county\u2019s elderly population and residents with special needs, not to mention county taxpayers.\u00a0 On Friday, March 15th the Commissioners continued their ongoing and disturbing pattern of taking advantage of the hardworking men and women at the Department of Human Services. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[2105,705,2106,2107,2108],"class_list":["post-6487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor","tag-budgets","tag-chester-county-commissioners","tag-department-of-human-services","tag-elderly","tag-seiu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}