Rank-and-file members of the Service Employees International Union have overwhelmingly rejected four of five tentative contract agreements with Allegheny County.

The contracts had called on county workers to pay for a larger portion of their health insurance costs and to accept a wage freeze in the first year, according to Andy Friedman, a chief negotiator for one of two SEIU locals that represent about 1,400 county employees.

"It's too soon to comment on what we'll do," Friedman said about the vote, which was tallied Saturday. The union's negotiating committee must develop a strategy, he said.

An SEIU unit representing clerical workers in several county row offices approved its contract, while four other units voted against their contracts with the county.

Employees have been working without contracts since July 31, when their previous contracts expired. Union negotiators started meeting with representatives from the county's Law Department last March to craft a new agreement for SEIU members, who are clerical, technical and blue-collar workers in almost all county departments.

Last year, SEIU, the largest of Allegheny County's 22 employee labor unions, filed an unfair labor practice complaint against county Chief Executive Dan Onorato after he signed a deal with Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield that increased health insurance co-payments.

The increases became effective Jan. 1.

Onorato cited a sharp rise in health care costs as the main reason for the new deal.

Even with the increase in co-payments, the county will spend $41 million on employee health insurance this year, up from $35 million in 2004.

"Health care costs are spiraling out of control," county Solicitor Michael Wojcik said. "It's a problem facing all employers and employees."

But union officials argued that the county needed to include them in any decisions about changes to health insurance plans.

"They illegally made a unilateral change," Friedman said.

The new four-year contracts roll back some of the co-payment increases. Doctor visits that went from $5 to $25 would instead cost $15, and, in the contract's third year, each visit would cost $20.

The contracts also call for gradual increases in employee contributions to health insurance premiums, Wojcik said, with no payment for the first year. By the contract's final year, employees would be paying 1 percent of their salary to cover premium costs.

After no wage increases during the contract's first year, county employees would receive raises of 37 cents in the second year and 45 cents in the third and fourth years.

Contracts expired last year for 18 labor unions representing county employees, and about half of those bargaining units have approved new pacts with terms similar to those SEIU members voted on last week, Wojcik said.

Since SEIU members typically earn less than other county workers, the raises in the new contracts would benefit them more, Wojcik said.

But Friedman argues that county workers have long tolerated lower wages only because they receive benefits such as affordable health insurance plans.

"Our units are underpaid compared to the private sector, and the unwritten understanding has always been that, for county employees, the benefits are better," he said. "Now it's just the worst of both worlds."