After nearly two years of negotiations - the final eight months in arbitration hearings - UE members working for the City of Stamford Department of Public Works (DPW) have ratified a new five-year agreement. For the members of Sub-local 82 of UE Local 222, the most important things about this agreement are the concessions that they stopped. Members beat back the city's attempts to eliminate the pension for new hires and replace it with a 457 savings plan - the public sector equivalent of a 401(k). Because of the persistence of the Stamford UE membership, new hires in the DPW will continue to be covered by the pension, as are current employees.
The union also blocked the city's attempt to add language to the contract allowing it to privatize the work now done by DPW workers. UE members saw this as a major threat to their jobs, and the experience of other unions has borne this out. Unions representing some of the other Stamford city workers recently agreed to such language, and are already starting to see their jobs outsourced. DPW workers in the nearby city of Norwalk, represented by a different union, have privatization language in their contract which was imposed on them through arbitration. Norwalk is now soliciting proposals from private contractors to take over that city's refuse collection operation.
The new contract includes retroactivity for wages, because the expiration date of the old agreement was June 30, 2010. Wage increases for the five years of the agreement are 0 percent, 2 percent, 2 percent, 2.5 percent and 3 percent. The average wage will rise from $23.46 an hour to $25.76. Under the new agreement, mechanics can earn an additional $1,200 per year if they pass up to four Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) certification tests.
NEGOTIATE, ARBITRATE, NEGOTIATE
After more than a year of contentious bargaining, the sub-local and the city faced off in three arbitration sessions in front of a state arbitration panel - and still had more arbitrating to do. There were over 80 issues in dispute that went to arbitration, the vast majority of which were the city's concession demands. Under Connecticut law public employees are prohibited from striking, and the law says the unresolved contract issues are to be decided through arbitration before a three-member panel (one from management, one from labor, and one "neutral.") The state system of "interest arbitration" is not pro-worker, and in recent years employers have been winning major take-aways from their workers through this process.
The Stamford UE members decided to use the process to try to push the city off of its concession demands and toward a negotiated settlement. After three arbitration hearings, the two sides still had many more months and more arbitration hearings ahead before they'd get an arbitration ruling. But through the members' persistence, and by presenting a strong case in the hearings, the union was able to push management to a negotiated settlement.
In the agreement, there are some setbacks on health insurance. Deductibles, co-pays, and out-of-pocket maximums will increase over the term of the agreement, and beginning July 2013 employees' payroll contributions will be pay 13 percent of the premium. (They now pay 10 percent.) Workers who retire early are currently able to retain the same health insurance as active employees until age 65 by paying 33 percent of the premium. But for those who retire on or after July 1, 2015, the retiree's portion of the premium will rise to 50 percent. New hires will not be eligible for the post-65 Medicare supplement.
Members agreed to contribute 6 percent of their pay for the defined benefit pension plan, an increase of 1 percent. This was a compromise the union made to keep pension coverage for new hires, a goal the members felt was very important. However new hires will not be able to use unused sick or vacation days to boost their pension earnings calculations, as current employees can do, and no employees will be able to use their annual longevity bonus to boost their earnings in their final year.
The sub-local added a step to the grievance procedure in which the union will meet with the department head. Drug testing language was improved. Under past agreements, a member who tested positive for drug use a second time was not discharged, but instead demoted to laborer and forever barred from returning to his/her previous position. That penalty was removed from the new agreement. Instead, a second positive test will result in suspension, and as in the old agreement, a third positive test results in discharge.
Sub-local 82 has built a coalition with most of the other Stamford city workers' unions which meets regularly to shares information and strategies on issues the unions are facing. This has proven to be a lasting coalition, and the city unions conducted well-attended rallies as part of the April 4, 2011 "We Are One" events, and a similar rally in April 2012. The fights against privatization of city services and to keep the pension for future city employees were part of both these rallies. With three other city unions still in bargaining and resisting the city's concession demands on these issues, that coalition, and the UE's success in fighting the concessions, are very important.
"This was a very long and difficult negotiations", said Jeff Dinan, president of Sub-local 82. "We were not about to let go of the pension for new hires and we had a good plan to defend it. There was no way we were going to agree to privatization of any of our jobs. The members were strong on these main points, but unfortunately some of the other unions gave up on these issues way too early. Other unions also gave in to paying much more for health insurance, which made it harder for us. Our negotiating committee and members hung in there, and are to be commended for getting what we did and protecting what we had to."
The committee consisted of President Jeff Dinan, Business Officer/Chief Steward Eric Adams, Vice President Dan Greco, John Perkins and Jody Williams. They were assisted during negotiations by Northeast Region President Peter Knowlton. UE International Representative Gene Elk and Research Director Karl Zimmerman prepared and conducted the interest arbitration proceedings. Field Organizer Mike Lewis was the UE's representative on the arbitration panel.