After court ruling, majority of Jackson County’s prosecutors quit paying union dues
More than half of Jackson County’s assistant prosecutors have quit paying union dues since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last summer that government workers could not be compelled to contribute to unions representing them in contract talks.
At least some of those lawyers resigned from Local 42 of the International Association of Fire Fighters in protest of the union’s recent public attack on their boss, Jean Peters Baker, who in addition to being the elected county prosecutor is chairwoman of the Missouri Democratic Party. The prosecutors have continued to work under terms of contract that was to have expired more than a year ago, and the union believed that Baker was not negotiating in good faith.
But documents obtained by The Star through an open records request show that the exodus began six months before area unions threatened to withhold campaign contributions from the state party for as long as Baker was in charge, or until she reached a new labor agreement with Local 42.
At the union’s request, the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO rescinded that two-week-old threat on Wednesday as stalled contract talks resumed.
In a statement, Baker said she appreciated the union’s decision to drop the threat. “Contract negotiations with Local 42 are continuing but those must be hammered out at the negotiation table, not in the media or using other forums,” Baker said.
Local 42 President Tim Dupin has said that the union lost members due to the impasse that began on Nov. 15. But documents show nearly two dozen had already quit by then.
The first resignation came within hours of the June 27 court ruling that said Missouri and 21 other states could no longer force non-members to pay fees to the unions that represent them in contract talks and arbitration. Doing so, the court said, violated their free-speech rights.
Other assistant prosecutors began asking to stop those non-member fee deductions in greater numbers through the summer and fall. Now only 30 of the 65 attorneys in the bargaining unit are still authorizing the county to deduct dues from their paychecks, county officials said Wednesday. Some of them had never been union members. Others resigned from Local 42 so that they could quit paying dues.
No other union representing employees within Jackson County government has seen a similar loss in support as a result of the high court’s 5-4 decision, according to the county. Two thirds of 60 prosecutor’s office support staff workers represented by the Carpenters Union continue to pay dues.
Local 42 officials did not respond to phone and email messages requesting comment on why their union saw a steeper decline in support than others working for Jackson County. Baker declined comment on that topic.
But speaking on background, one assistant prosecutor told The Star that he failed to see much value from the more than $100 a month he paid in union dues. He said a union that primarily represents Kansas City firefighters didn’t seem like a good fit for a bunch of lawyers.
“I don’t think the 65 prosecutors matter all that much to them,” he said.
He and a former assistant prosecutor said also they disagreed with the union on some issues, such as continuing to argue against the years-old firings of three assistant prosecutors, two of whom were dismissed for lying to the court. They should have been fired, the lawyers said.
In a Jan. 15 email obtained by The Star, an attorney whose name was redacted by county officials said he or she also objected to the union inserting politics into labor negotiations.
“The Union is now publicly advancing a political position with which I disagree strongly and to which I do not want to provide monetary support nor the tacit support conveyed by my continued membership in the Union,” read the message addressed to union leaders and copied to the prosecutor’s chief of operations and county human resources director.
Local 42 has represented assistant prosecutors in labor negotiations since 2000, when the attorneys working then voted overwhelmingly to form a union in hopes of getting better job security, higher pay and improved benefits.
The union helped achieve those goals, but both sides have had trouble reaching a new agreement. Local 42 is asking that starting pay for new prosecutors rise to $61,000, an increase of more than 20 percent.
Baker says negotiations have been hampered by the fact that the county’s overall 2019 budget has not yet been approved. Normally that is done in December. But every four years, when the entire county legislature stands for election, deliberations are put off until the end of January.
During budget hearings last week, Baker agreed that her prosecutors were underpaid and needed a raise, but acknowledged the county’s financial constraints in providing a big boost..
”I’ve been told repeatedly this budget is flat,” she said. “If there is any money left, I want it.”
Two years ago, the county awarded scheduled 2 percent merit raises six months ahead of schedule and later that year committed another $196,000 for increases that weren’t required by the labor contract. Annual pay for beginning prosecutors was set at $50,000 a year on that new pay scale and topped out at $120,000 for trial team leaders.
This year Baker is starting a program to pay $500 stipends for each two-week period a prosecutor is on call to visit crime scenes after regular hours.
Legislators said they recognized the need for raises within the prosecutor’s office, but stressed that employees across county government were also deserving, as most are paid far less than their peers working for other local governments in the area.
“We’re trying to do the right thing across the board,” legislator Crystal Williams said.
She said a 5 percent across-the-board raise for county employees is being discussed, but the county is awaiting the results of a wage study before making such a move.
This story was originally published January 23, 2019 at 4:51 PM.
