BNA Daily Labor Report; August 21, 2009

….. The court rejected the county's “unclean hands” argument based on its assertion that the unions knew of the fiscal crisis, yet bargained for wage increases. “The Court is perplexed by this argument because the County seems to shift the responsibility of its fiscal management to the AFSCME Unions,” Williams wrote.

“What leaps out at the Court is that while shining the spotlight on what the AFSCME Unions supposedly knew, the County then straps on blinders for its own convenience,” Williams continued. “The Unions bear no fault for seeking higher pay for [their] members, which, as far as the Court is aware, is the standard practice of a Union: to advocate on behalf of its members. If the County is claiming that it knew it could not afford to pay the COLAs, the Court wonders why the County agreed to pay them in the first instance.”