Article:

Hundreds of CSEA members, some with babies in strollers, showed up Thursday night, March 22nd, outside the County Office Building in White Plains to walk the picket line and holler out their dissatisfaction with the Office of the County Executive’s failure to negotiate a contract in nearly 15 months covering some 4,000 Westchester County employees. is, at a time, when the Office was proposing the addition of 100 new employees, 77 of which Republican Legislator George Oros had declared were unnecessary.

Union members’ shouts could be clearly heard by those in attendance at Andrew Spano’s 10th State of the County Address being delivered, several doors above the picketers, before County dignitaries and elected officials. The "public action" of Unit 9200 was the first to be staged during the current contract dispute.

According to Jessica Ladlee, spokesperson for CSEA Southern Region, " The sticking points in negotiations right now are wages and health insurance." Unit President Jack McPhillips and a staff negotiator have met numerous times with County officials; however, Ladlee declared, " The meetings have not been productive thus far, so the negotiations are now at an impasse. Proposals from the County, to date, have been unacceptable to the negotiating team and the membership."