Interesting that you word it as the County "offers" and the Union "demands".  I agree that you can't use Multnomah County as a comparable, but surely you can agree that using Jackson County is also not a comparable, for similar reasons.  The County position has not changed in over 2 weeks.  During each mediation meeting, they simply listen to a new offer by the Union, then go into their own meeting for 8 hours, then come out and simply say, "no".    Today's reply to the latest union offer was again "no". This is not negotiating.  This is an attempted union busting move.  County Administrator Steve M. at Lane County worked for Scott Walker in Wisconsin, and it's obvious he was brought here to do the same thing here at Lane County.  Lane County workers deserve better.  Oh yeah,  I'm NOT a government worker, by the way.