Pasco employees back Teamster contract

NEW PORT RICHEY — Pasco County employees have ratified their first Teamster contract.

The one-year contract was ratified by Pasco County employees and covers more than 1,100 public workers covering the gamut from road and bridge workers to librarians.

“We fought to win a strong first contract for these hardworking public employees, and we won,” Ken Wood, president of Teamsters Local 79 in Tampa and Teamsters International vice president, says in a press release. “The battle took almost four years, but our negotiators knew that they must bring the employees a contract that honored their job seniority, has just-cause provisions and included wage increases.”

Pasco County employees are the newest county employees to be represented by Teamsters Local 79, which already represents public service employees in Hernando, Citrus and Collier counties.

Teamsters Local 79 is affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents 1.4 million workers throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.