Markeshia Ricks Photo
BOA Finance Committee Co-Chairs Evette Hamilton and Marchand
A local union representing 411 of the city’s nonmanagerial positions is once again operating under a collective bargaining agreement.
The Board of Alders Wednesday sped up its normal process to approve the contract for AFSCME Local 884, which represents city employees who handle tasks from data control and accounts payable to helping children cross city streets and taking 911 calls.
The five-year collective bargaining agreement is retroactive, covering when the local’s previous contract expired on July 1, 2015, through June 30, 2020.The new agreement with Local 844 includes modest wage increases and increased medical benefit contributions by employees.
Members will receive a wage increase of 3 percent for fiscal 2017, 2 percent for fiscal 2018, 2.25 percent for fiscal 2019, and 2.5 percent for fiscal 2020. The city anticipates that these salary raises will represent a cumulative increase of $2.5 million for the general fund budget and $1.1 million for the special fund budget by the end of the contract term. (Read more details of the contract here.)
The city will counterbalance the impact of a portion of those salary increases with higher employee contributions for retirees and medical benefits.
Local 884’s membership voted to ratify the agreement on May 25. The Finance Committee heard from the city budget director about the contract on June 15 but didn’t take a vote. It instead discharged it from the committee so that the full board could vote.
Usually the board at one meeting “hears” a matter approved by a committee, then votes on it the next meeting. But in order to speed up the process, the alders’ Finance Committee never took a vote on the contract. It referred it to the full board to consider and the offer a final vote on it as a “committee of the whole,” which it did Wednesday night.
Finance Committee Co-Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand said it was necessary for alders to take the vote instead of waiting for the contract to go through the usual process because the deadline for approving the contract is within 30 days of its submission to the board.
This isn’t the last of the contracts that the city has to negotiate with unions. The city is currently in contract negotiations with the police union, the AFSCME Local 3144 supervisors union, the Local 1303 – 464 attorneys union, and the nurses union. Local 424 public works union also is in binding arbitration with the city over its contract.