A local employee union is threatening to file charges of unfair labor practices against the Northshore Utility District (NUD).

The Washington State Council of County and City Employees (WSCCE), which represents NUD workers, claims the utility has bargained in bad faith and retaliated against employees for union activity.

The two parties are involved in contract negotiations that have dragged on for more than two years.

Union leaders say former NUD Commissioner Kinnon Williams, a Bothell attorney, is responsible for the stalled deliberations.

Employees at the utility have been working without a contract since December 2006, when the last agreement expired.

Williams was playing a dual role as the district’s attorney and as a commissioner when negotiations on new contracts began.

The NUD claims this arrangement saved rate payers around $80,000 a year in legal fees.

Williams gave the utility a discounted price for his services, charging only $1,500 a month.

That amount was equal to the state’s legal limit for elected officials who do work for their own municipal bodies, but it was less than the $300 an hour that Williams normally charges.

“It was a tremendous deal for the utility district, and I was perfectly willing to do that,” Williams said. “It was part of my civic job.”

Union representatives contested the arrangement, saying it posed a conflict of interest.

“It was nothing personal against Kinnon, and we told him that,” said WSCCE Deputy Director Pat Thompson. “It just didn’t pass the straight-face test.”

Union leaders eventually pushed for a bill that would prohibit municipal officers from benefitting from the same legal-service contracts that they were overseeing.

Legislators passed the measure in April 2007, effectively forcing Williams to terminate his work with the NUD’s negotiating team.

Williams did not run for re-election in 2007, but he still works for the NUD as an attorney.

“My involvement is generally limited to real estate and general municipal concerns,” he said.

Thompson still blames Williams for the stalled contract negotiations, saying the former commissioner is holding a grudge and influencing his old colleagues.

“It’s difficult for me to believe he’s not talking to them about these issues,” Thompson said.

The state has appointed a mediator to resolve the contract dispute, but the two parties are still unable to forge an agreement.

One of the primary sticking points is union security, an industry practice that requires all employees to pay for representation.

The NUD wants to make membership optional, but union leaders call this “union busting.”

“It’s a deal-breaker,” Thompson said. “There are a few things every union contract has to have, and that’s one of them.

“I can’t think of a single union in the Puget Sound that would agree to that.”

Thompson claims the NUD reneged on a deal to drop the union-security issue once the employee group came to an agreement on other key issues.

However the WSCCE had no record of such a proposal by the NUD.

The union was yet to file unfair-labor-practice charges with the Public Employment Relations Commission at the Reporter deadline, but it was still wielding that option as a threat.

Thompson claims the NUD fired two employees because of their union activities, and he says another, Rich Karschney, resigned because of pressure from management.

Karschney quit his job as a district mechanic after five years with the utility.

“They were making my life flat miserable,” he said. “It finally got to the point where it started affecting my health.”

Karschney now works as a mechanic with the city of Lynnwood, and says that he is content with both his job and his supervisors.