City signs on to new union agreements

The city recently agreed to new contracts with city employees represented by a pair of bargaining units of Teamsters Local 14. The Blue Collar Bargaining Unit represents dozens of city employees ranging from animal control officers to HVAC techs and wastewater workers. The Clerical Bargaining Unit, while smaller, still represents a range of employees from department secretaries to code enforcement officers to court clerks.

Both union units have been without a contract since June 30, 2022 when the last agreement expired. The new agreements will result in more than $3 million in additional labor costs to the city covering the 2023, 2024 and 2025 fiscal years with about 40% of the total increase coming in the 2025 fiscal year. According to city staff, the increases in FY2023 and FY2024 are already accounted for in the recently adopted FY2024 budget. Increases for FY2025 will have to be accounted for in a future budget.

The new agreement with the clerical bargaining unit will result in $128,805 in additional wages and lump-sum bonuses of $70,378 bringing the total increase for fiscal year 2023 to $199,183. In fiscal year 2024, wages go up by an additional $355,155 plus additional benefit expenses of $16,836 and another lump-sum bonus of $75,339, bringing the total FY2024 increase to $447,330. Wages increase by an additional $464,210 in FY2025 plus an increase in benefit payments of $30,636 for a total increase of $494,846 for FY2025.

About two-thirds of the additional wages and benefits will flow to members of the Blue Collar Bargaining Unit —$1,933,815 over the course of three years.

Fiscal year 2023 costs will go up by $227,617 in wages, $780 towards benefits and a lump-sum bonus of $124,507 for a total of $352,904 in additional costs. Fiscal year 2024 will see an increase in wages of $641,613 plus $29,328 in benefit costs and a lump-sum bonus of $133,698 for a total FY2024 increase of $775,311. In fiscal year 2025, there is no bonus budgeted while wages are set to increase by $805,600 and benefit costs are slated for an increase of $52,728.

City staff noted in their report that the new agreements were negotiated during a time when general inflation reached levels not seen since the late 1970s and during a national labor shortage. They also noted that the new agreements were in line with other current city practices and were modeled on similar agreements in other jurisdictions.