Strike averted: Union approves new contract with Westmoreland County

More than 500 Westmoreland County courthouse and nursing home employees ratified a union contract Monday.

Approval of the three-year deal averted a strike that would have started Friday if a deal wasn’t reached.

Rank-and-file members of the Service Employees International Union Local 668 and Healthcare PA overwhelmingly voted to accept terms of the contract that include raises that total about 17% over the course of the contract, labor officials said.

“The workers needed to be paid more, and we made substantial moves in that direction,” said Al Smith, SEIU business manger and staff director for Western Pennsylvania. “We were willing to strike, but a strike is effectively when it has to happen and it didn’t have to happen here.”

The union includes nurses and support staff at Westmoreland Manor, the county-owned nursing home in Hempfield, and courthouse workers such as clerical staff in non-court-related offices, public works and maintenance employees, Area Agency on Aging caseworkers, 911 dispatchers, juvenile detention and shelter workers and deputy coroners.

Union members have been working without a contract since the end of December. Negotiations were at times contentious, and, over the past several months, the union conducted a series of informational pickets in front of the courthouse and Manor.

The union had sought raises in line with the ones the county’s elected officials have received since 2021. Pay hikes for county leaders, according to an ordinance approved in the late 1990s, are determined by increases in the consumer price index. Those increases totaled more than 17% over the past three years and included salary bumps of 3.5% in 2024.

Union members earned annual pay raises that averaged about 2% under terms of the previous four-year contract.

The union authorized a strike and notified county officials its members would walk off the job Feb. 2 without a new contract.

“This is a great contract that gets these county jobs to where they should have been years ago,” said Holly Hall, a certified nursing assistant at Westmoreland Manor. “We were ready to fight for our residents and for our county, who deserve access to timely services and quality care provided by their own. These wage increases are a good start. We’re glad that the commissioners saw the importance of improving these essential services, too.”

Commissioners are expected to vote on the contract at their next public meeting Feb. 8.

“My goal has always been to negotiate a deal that respects the important work SEIU members do and the financial realities of county government. This agreement accomplishes that. And now, together, we can focus on best serving Westmoreland County residents,” Commissioner Ted Kopas said.