Thomas Breen photo
Local 884 Prez Kym Bray: New 5-year agreement a "symbol of recognizing and appreciating the work that our members do every day."
911 call center workers, school security guards, parking enforcement officers, and city attorneys are all now closer to landing pay raises, as alders moved ahead two labor accords for groups of municipal workers who have gone nearly three years without an active contract.
That was the upshot of Monday night’s latest regular meeting of the Board of Alders Finance Committee, which took place in-person in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
The committee alders voted unanimously in support of recommending approval of a new five-year contract between the city and Local 884. That’s the roughly 400-member clerical workers union that includes public employees ranging from administrative assistants to police record clerks to emergency dispatchers to school security guards to traffic and parking officers.
If approved by the full Board of Alders, the new agreement would extend from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2025 and would include 3 percent annual pay increases that would be retroactive to the start of the contract.
City Budget Director Gormany and Labor Relations Director Ault-Battey.
According to City Budget Director Michael Gormany, the agreement would see the total base salary for the roughly 400-budgeted positions included in the union increase by $4.3 million over the course of the five-year deal. When taking into account expected city savings on healthcare and pension parts of the deal, the total cost of the accord could be between $3 and $3.5 million.
The agreement would also bump up school security guards from 10-month to 12-month positions, require union members to contribute 1.5 percent instead of 1.25 percent of their annual salaries towards Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB), increase the retirement age for new employees from 62 to 65, automatically place new employees in a high deductible health care plan, and allow members to leave their retirement benefits to a wider range of designees and not just to a spouse. Union membership ratified the agreement on April 26.
“This was by far the most challenging contract to negotiate,” city Director of Labor Relations Wendella Ault-Battey said during Monday’s meeting. “We recognize the value that this group adds to the city. In recognizing value, it’s not just about salary. It’s about the little things that people do.” That’s why this agreement also includes provisions about “a lot of little, operational things” uniforms, shoes, and “health and safety” measures, Ault-Battey said. “Just a lot of things that caused our employees to be a little happier.”
Local 884 President Kym Bray hailed the contract as “a symbol of recognizing and appreciating the work that our members do every day.” She said she believes the agreement, if approved by the full Board of Alders, would make the array of union jobs covered by Local 884 that much more attractive to prospective employees — and that much less likely to be left vacant for extended periods of time.
Thomas Breen file photo
Dixwell Alder Jeanette Morrison praised Local 884’s workers are making up “the glue to the city. If we don’t have them, the city will crumble. I want to make sure that these people get the money that they’re looking for, the contract that we’re looking for. We need them. We don’t want them to leave.”
East Rock Alder Anna Festa agreed. She praised them as being “the silent angels” of City Hall. “We don’t hear from them” often, she said. “We just see the work that they do.” She also thanked the Local 884 workers for coming directly to the City Services and Environmental Policy (CSEP) committee last spring to speak out about the challenges of their work and their need for a new contract.
“They’re the ones that make the city work and run,” she said. “This was a long time coming for them. I’m just happy to see that it has been settled and rectified.”
“I think it’s been long overdue,” added Edgewood Alder Evette Hamilton. “People have been waiting a long time” for this contract. This proposed deal helps make sure “people are [appropriately] compensated for the work that they’re doing.”
Finance Committee Chair and Westville Alder Adam Marchand said that having better rates of pay for “these important staff may help the city fill vacancies,” which, if left unfilled, could lead to overwork, injuries, and lower quality services and slower response times to city reisdents.
Ault-Battey and city attorneys union Prez Audrey Kramer.
Also on Monday night, the committee alders also took no action on a new six-year labor agreement between the city and Local 1303 – 464. That’s the city attorneys union, which includes less than a dozen members. The no-vote was a procedural move that will allow the full Board of Alders to expedite a vote on the contract for process reasons at its next meeting.
If approved by the full city legislature, this labor accord would extend from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2026. It would establish a new salary scale, include 2 percent annual pay increases from Fiscal Year 2022 – 23 (FY23) through FY26, and would allow for a “medical op-out” that would pay employees a lump sum if they choose to access health insurance outside of that offered by the city. Gormany said the total projected cost of the salary increases included in agreement is around $527,000 over the course of the six-year deal.
This is “a contract that the city and the union are very pleased with,” Ault-Battey said. “The city had been negotiating with the union for a while. It was quite a challenge.”
City Corp Counsel King.
“It’s a very competitive market out there for lawyers,” city Corporation Counsel Patricia King told the committee alders. She noted that her office had lost three litigators in the last four months alone — two of whom went to higher-paying jobs in state government, the third having left for a higher-paying job in the private sector.
She said she believes the salary increases included in this agreement “will help us attract in-house attorneys” who can not only represent the city in state and federal court, but also advice city boards and commissions.
City Assistant Corporation Counsel and union President Audrey Kramer said she’s been with the city for almost 26 years. “It’s been tough dealing with the fact that we’ve lost three young litigators” in such a short period of time, she said.
She praised the city for “recognizing our hard work” with this new contract. She said she and her colleagues are “very excited that we’re getting a salary we think we’re entitled to and that’s competitive with other municipalities.”
King added that, thanks to a few recent hires, her office now has only two vacancies.
Are there any applicants interested in those positions? asked Alder Festa.
“Without revealing too much, I have spoken to experienced attorneys who would be interested in applying at the salary levels” included in this new agreement, King said. “They wouldn’t apply at the current” salary for the now-vacant positions. She said the current salary is around $84,000 for those vacant positions, while the new contract would allow her to hire for those same positions at a salary of $117,000.
Finance Chair and Westville Alder Marchand.
Marchand noted the “significant shift” included in salary levels for city attorney union positions. For example, he said, step one for such positions is currently at an annual salary of around $76,000. That would go up to around $102,000 thanks to this new agreement. “That would make the job much more attractive, understandably,” he said.
Gormany said that the base salary amount for city attorneys union positions would increase from around $1.2 million in total to nearly $1.8 million over the course of the six-year deal.
“That’s not quite a 50 percent increase over the baseline,” Marchand noted. “I can imagine that the attorneys were pleased because it is a substantial increase in pay for these folks, and it’s retroactive in two installments, so that’s positive as well for those folks.”
Both the Local 884 and Local 1303 – 464 labor agreements now advance to the full Board of Alders for further review and potential final votes.
