Lewis County finalized yet another labor agreement this week, this time with Lewis County Sheriff’s Office support staff.
The Lewis County Board of Commissioners approved a collective bargaining agreement with Teamsters local 252 on Tuesday morning during the board's weekly business meeting. The contract, which goes into effect immediately and will extend through the end of 2028, dictates cost-of-living raises for the represented staff over the next three years, among other agreements on health care and benefit contributions.
The approval of the contract marks the final union contract to be negotiated between the county and employees of the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office. It's also the 10th of 14 collective bargaining agreements that need to be approved by Lewis County as soon as possible.
That puts the county just four contracts away from having a more complete picture of what the budget impacts of the negotiations with all of its union-represented workers will be. The county already faced challenges balancing the 2026 budget during its budget meetings toward the end of 2025, forcing last-minute changes. That budget did not factor in the new labor agreements, which were yet to be signed. For previous reporting on the 2026 Lewis County budget, visit https://tinyurl.com/32d9fbj4.
According to previous reporting, the county expects to have a clearer picture of its budget and the impact of the new labor agreements at the end of the first quarter of 2026 in March. While the labor agreements will raise costs, Lewis County Budget Administrator Becky Butler has previously stated that the county has also reduced labor costs in other areas by recently switching their insurance provider.
The new contract with the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office support staff secures what are often referred to as cost-of-living salary increases. For 2026, that means sheriff’s office support staff will see a 2.7% increase to their previous year's salary.
That pushes the salary range for the office's support staff from $49,282 to $82,241 in 2025 to $50,613 on the low side and $84,462 on the high side in 2026.
That percentage increase is on the low side of the range of salary increases received by the same employees in recent years. According to a previous collective bargaining agreement effective from 2022 through 2025, the represented employees received a 3% cost-of-living salary increase in 2025 and 2024 and a 4% cost of living increase the year before that in 2023. The same employees received a 2% salary increase in 2022.
According to the contract, the employees have also agreed, like many other union represented employees during this year’s contract negotiation, to link future cost-of-living salary increases to the consumer price index in the region. The consumer price index measures the average cost increase of certain essential retail goods in a region of the U.S.
As part of that agreement, the two parties agreed that consumer price index-related salary increases will always land in a range between a 1.5% salary increase and a 3% salary increase.
For more information on the county’s collective bargaining agreements, visit https://tinyurl.com/bddsmh9d. And for the most recent reporting from The Chronicle on recent collective bargaining agreements, visit https://tinyurl.com/2c333b77.
