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« Man, 23, who hit police car while driving drunk, pleads | Today | Watson-Villegas clinch rain-delayed CVS golf tourney » June 24, 2008Providence, Local 1033 reach pact covering 4 yearsPROVIDENCE -- The city’s unionized municipal workers have reached contracts with the city covering a four-year period that protects them from rumored layoffs, provides roughly 2 percent wage increases annually, and doubles the amount they pay towards their health care over the life of the contract. A well-known city benefit allowing outside workers to go home with pay on hot days, known as the “90 degree rule,” has also been negotiated out of the deal. The roughly 900 municipal employees represented by Local 1033 of the Laborers International Union of North America have been working under the terms of their old contract since it expired last June 30. This deal covers that period with one contract, and the next three years with another. The contract was ratified by employees by a vote of 811-0 over the last two days, said Local 1033 business manager Donald S. Iannazzi. The City Council must still ratify the deal. Local 1033 represents approximately 900 employees, or the bulk of the city's workforce other than teachers, police officers and firefighters. The employees do a variety of jobs, from issuing licenses, to operating the water system, to helping schoolchildren cross the street, to assessing and collecting taxes. The contract offers employees a 1 percent wage increase on June 1 of this year, and a 1 percent increase on July 1. It then builds in 1 percent increases in January and 2 percent increases in July in both 2009 and 2010, which over the four years covered by the deal works out to roughly a 2 percent increase per year. -- Journal staff writer Daniel Barbarisi The contract offers little retroactive pay -- retroactive payments only date to June 1 of this year, and continue until the contract is approved by the City Council. The contract will also double the amount that employees pay for their health care over the life of the deal. At the moment, employees on an individual plan pay $400 per year, and employees on a family plan pay $1,000 annually. After several gradual increases over the course of the contract, they will pay $900 for an individual plan and $1,900 for a family plan by the time the contract expires in June of 2011. Those increases will mean a savings of $1.2 million over the course of the deal, city officials said. Cicilline’s Chief of Administration, Richard I. Kerbel, said that thanks to the health care savings and the savings from eliminating the 90 degree rule, the cost increases to the city should be negligible over the next four years. The previous Laborers contract was ratified in the fall of 2004. In that three-year deal, the Laborers agreed to pay a portion of their health benefits for the first time -- 10 percent -- and received a 7.5 percent raise over the life of the contract. The Laborers are now the only major city union with even a tentative contract agreement. The city’s contract with the Providence Teachers Union expired last summer, and negotiations are ongoing. Roughly 1,000 school department employees, most represented by Local 1033, are also still operating under the expired contract. The city is also still in arbitration with the city’s police and firefighters. Posted by Mike McKinney Commentsjvp | June 24, 2008 6:51 PM link Post a commentPlease be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published. Name and email are required; email address will not publish. |
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ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006
I cannot beleive the union gave away the 90* day off rule. At least raise the temp to 95* and keep the benefit.