Lewis County, Decision 13455 (PECB, 2021)

STATE OF WASHINGTON

BEFORE THE PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

Rob DeRosa, Business Agent, for Teamsters Local 252.

Lewis County Commissioners, for Lewis County.

Danny Riordan, President, for the Lewis County Deputies Guild.

Findings of Fact

1.                  Teamsters Local 252 filed a representation petition concerning employees of Lewis County. The Public Employment Relations Commission (PERC) determined the petition was timely filed and accompanied by a sufficient showing of interest.

2.                  The Lewis County Deputies Guild is the incumbent labor organization that represented the petitioned‑for employees and was granted status as intervenor in these proceedings.

3.                  The bargaining unit, last certified in Lewis County, Decision 9588 (PECB, 2007), is described as follows:

All full-time and regular part-time commissioned officers of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office within the Operations Bureau, excluding supervisors, confidential employees, and all other employees.

4.                  PERC conducted election proceedings. The employees were given free choice in the proceedings. The tally of results was provided to the parties. No meritorious election objections were filed.

5.                  The petitioned-for Operations Sergeants will be removed from the current bargaining unit and placed into a separate bargaining unit of Operations Sergeants represented by Teamsters Local 252. The bargaining unit will be described as:

All commissioned Operations Sergeants employed by Lewis County’s Sheriff Department, excluding supervisors, confidential employees, and all other employees.

6.                  The Lewis County Deputies Guild will continue to represent the remaining bargaining unit and the bargaining unit description will be updated to remove the Operations Sergeants from the existing bargaining unit. The bargaining unit description will be modified as follows:

All full-time and regular part-time commissioned officers of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office within the Operations Bureau, excluding Operations Sergeants, supervisors, confidential employees, and all other employees.

Conclusions of Law

1.                  The unit described in finding of fact 3 is an appropriate unit within the meaning of RCW 41.56.060.

2.                  Representation proceedings were conducted in accordance with RCW 41.56.070 and chapter 391‑25 WAC.

certification

Lewis County Operations Sergeants in the bargaining unit described in finding of fact 5 have chosen

Teamsters local 252

as their representative for the purpose of collective bargaining with their employer.

ISSUED at Olympia, Washington, this  27th  day of December, 2021.

PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COMMISSION

Michael P. Sellars, Executive Director