Mineral County Deputy Strike Drags On, Union Points Fingers at Commissioners

County deputies, 911 dispatchers and detention officers in Mineral County are still on strike, despite requests for mediation that were finalized last Friday. Teamsters Local Two spokesman Shawn Fontaine, says mediation could begin today.

"The state assigned a mediator to it, immediately," said Fontaine. "Within a few hours of me filing [mediation] paperwork, I received an email from the mediator letting me know that it had been assigned, and what his availability was. He said he was available Wednesday [June 8], and also Friday, as well as all of next week."

Fontaine says the attorney for the county received the same email from the mediator last week, but had still failed to respond as of noon yesterday.

"We just have to get a response from the county saying that we can meet, you know, on this date, but they haven't even done this," Fontaine said. "At the commissioner's meeting Thursday, they came out and said 'we want to get back to the table,' and 'we want to get this resolved,' and yet they won't contact us for the mediation process, so I don't know how heartfelt they were at that commissioner's meeting."

While the strike is ongoing, all non-union workers are pulling extra shifts. A local mayor is even running the switchboard for 911 calls to dispatch.