From the President’s Desk
Posted on 25. Feb, 2010 by Nancy Gray in News
By now you should have received your ratification notice on the tentative agreement reached with the City of Phoenix for the 2010-2012 M.O.U. The concessions along with the 2% food tax approved by the City Council will save approximately 170 jobs in our unit.
Our negotiations team was not happy about agreeing to concessions, but unfortunately the City didn’t leave us a choice. If we didn’t come to an agreement with the City voluntarily then the City Council would determine what happens. In these rough economic times and with the City’s focus on saving money, they would take the concessions from whatever brought the quickest money – wage cuts, delayed merit increases or suspending longevity. The City Council can only give a one year contract so we would be back at the negotiations table next year. If the economy took a downturn or the City lost state shared revenues the City might ask for more in concessions. We tried to minimize the loss to our members with the concessions chosen. At least with a furlough day there is some benefit to the employee since they get a day off. No one is losing their merit raise or longevity pay. We also did not agree to raise the health insurance from the employee paying 20% to 25% as some other units have considered.
By settling the contract before the City Council approves the budget on March 2nd we were able to save jobs that would have been lost had we not made concessions. Those positions would be eliminated on April 5th.
By agreeing to concessions and not having them imposed on us, we are guaranteed that all wages and benefits cut or suspended will be restored on June 30, 2012. We also have language that if the economy improves a raise may be possible.
Never in my twenty-five years as President of this local has the City of Phoenix ever asked for concessions. These are challenging times. Arizona is not the only state having financial problems. Employees in other states have been faced with everything from 5% pay cuts, 35 hour work weeks and eliminating paid personal days and holidays in Ohio to 5.2% pay cuts, 8 furlough days and eliminating uniform allowances in Tulsa. Hawaii employees are paying a higher portion of their health insurance and working a four day work week. California employees are taking 104 to 156 hours of furlough time annually. Las Vegas employees took an 8% pay cut over the next two years. I am furnishing this information to you to show that we are not alone in this problem. I hope no one is selfish enough to say “Who cares what other cities are doing?”
Unfortunately, with the number of unit members we have lost over the past couple of years and faced losing this year we could not idly sit by and do nothing. Remember, the job we are saving may be yours or your co-worker’s which would affect you on a daily basis.
As always on behalf of the Executive Board, we thank you for your support.
From the President’s Desk is a featured column in the semi-annual newsletter from the Local 2960. You may download the rest of the newsletter in the PDF format from here. (Newsletter – Feb 2010 – SE.pdf)
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