LAKE PLACID - Workers for the state Olympic Regional Development Authority are still waiting for a new contract, and their union leaders are speaking out about it.
About 150 employees represented by Civil Service Employees Association Local 059 have been without a contract for two years and nine months, since the last contract expired March 31, 2009.
"Nothing has really changed," CSEA Region President Kathy Garrison told the Enterprise Wednesday.
Garrison said the union wants to maintain benefits and get fair wages for ORDA workers. She said union employees are underpaid, noting that ticket vendors get paid less than $8 per hour. Trade workers like carpenters and mechanics earn an hourly wage of $18, which Garrison said is significantly less than in the private sector.
Garrison said the union and ORDA went through mediation with a state-appointed moderator, and CSEA filed paperwork four months ago to have a fact-finder review the details of the negotiations.
"We're still waiting for a fact-finder to be appointed, which is somewhat frustrating," she said.
Hammering out a new contract doesn't happen quickly, especially in these times of government austerity. Last week, the state reached a tentative deal with the Police Benevolent Association of New York State - a union that represents university police, forest rangers, park police and environmental conservation officers - after nearly six years of stalled negotiations.
Lately, the CSEA has been stretching the truth in some of its criticism of ORDA, painting the authority as being more flush with funds than it is.
For instance, CSEA falsely claimed on its website that ORDA spent $100,000 to open an ice-skating rink near the state Capital in Albany. In fact, the funds were contributed by the Lake Placid Regional Winter Sports Committee, to which the state pledged $5 million in the waning days of Gov. George Pataki's administration. The committee was given a loose mission to "enhance New York state's economy, quality of life, image and development of regional, national and international sports."
In the January 2012 issue of the Work Force, a monthly publication printed by CSEA, union spokeswoman Therese Assalian wrote that ORDA spent $20 million on the new Conference Center at Lake Placid. But the Conference Center was another separate state allocation under Pataki, again shortly before he left office in 2006. ORDA could not have spent that money to give its employees raises.
"I'm sure it's just misinformation," ORDA spokesman Jon Lundin told the Enterprise. "We had a choice of not using (the Conference Center money), but we did, with the goal of making Lake Placid a 12-month-a-year destination, therefore creating jobs, creating employment and creating opportunity for the people here."
Other disputes are more a matter of interpretation, such as when Assalian criticized ORDA in the Work Force for paying for new trails, lifts and snowmaking gear at the Whiteface and Gore mountain ski centers. Lundin said this investment by the authority accomplishes the same goals as the Conference Center.
"All of that is to the betterment of the mountain and the experience of the skiers who come to Lake Placid," Lundin said. "We need to keep Lake Placid as a driving force for visitation within the region."
Assalian also wrote that ORDA spent $200,000 on "fancy biometric time clocks that scan employees' fingerprints to keep closer tabs on workers." Lundin said the clocks were actually purchased with grant funds totaling $80,000, not $200,000, and that the system will show a return on investment in three to four years.
"The system that was in place, we had outgrown it," Lundin said.
Garrison said the CSEA plans to organize some demonstrations to build public support for a new contract. The union encouraged members to call ORDA President and CEO Ted Blazer and express their dissatisfaction with contract talks. The union has also contacted state Sen. Betty Little and Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward to get their support, but Garrison said the lawmakers "seem to have their hands tied.
"It's very frustrating, it's not fair, and I don't know what the sticking point is to be honest with you," she said. "I don't know why they wouldn't want to give their workers at least a modest raise. They're not making any kind of money."