COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – Branch County Commissioners approved two union contracts during a special meeting on Thursday.
They approved three year deals with Supervisors represented by the United Auto Workers and with the Police Officers Association of Michigan which represents Sheriff’s Department road patrol deputies and corrections officers.
The UAW deal calls for raises of 1.6 percent in both 2017 and 2018 and a two percent pay raise in 2019.
The POAM contract covers raises of a half percent in 2017, one percent in 2018 and 1.5 percent in 2019 after union members got a $1,000 raise in December of 2015.
Both unions have ratified the contracts.
Following brief closed sessions, Commissioners decided to take no action on contracts for the Command Officers Association of Michigan and the P.O.A.M. contract covering 911 dispatchers. The dispatchers have been working without a contract for the past year and are not happy with County Commissioners and County Administrator Bud Norman.
They claim they were being “strong armed” into signing a contract that would increase by three times the amount they pay for insurance premiums.
