Serving on the union’s negotiating committee at Gridley were, from left: Assistant Business Manager Ray Thomas, Elisa Argteaga, Ross Pippitt, Scott Taylor, and Business Representative Arlene Edwards.
Local 1245 members on a vote of 17-1 ratified a new Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Gridley on Sept. 26.
The MOU was agreed to by the City Council on Sept. 17.
The MOU provides a 9% wage increases over 2 years. The city had proposed a 1% lump sum, which the union opposed. In the end the city agreed to a 7% increase, offsetting members paying 100% of the PERS contribution, plus an additional 1% wage increase in year 1 and 1% wage increase in year 2.
The union succeeded in keeping employee medical costs at bay for the duration of the new agreement. The City sought an 80/20 cost-sharing agreement , which became a major sticking point in the negotiations. The union offered that IBEW employees would agree to pay 20% of future increases to the monthly health premium in addition to their current monthly contribution of $50/employee, $75/employee+1, $100/employee+family. Employee contributions are “capped” for the term of this contract, meaning that in no event will the employee contribution exceed $100/employee, $150/employee +1, or $200/employee + family.
The agreement increases the cell phone allowance from $20 to $40 for employees required by the City to have a cell phone. Public Works Lead Worker and Electric Customer Service Tech are subject to this provision.
Premiere Access Dental PPO will pay 95% of the UCR (usual and customary rate) for out-of-network dentists , saving the City $17,000 annually.
“Standard” Short Term Disability Insurance will be paid for by the City with acceptance of Premiere Access Dental. This allows City employees to be paid 100% of their straight time regular salary when taken in conjunction with accrued sick leave. This will cover employees until they reach the 90-day waiting period for long term disability.
Also included was some “clean up” language that had previously been agreed to which needed to be added to the MOU:
- Sick Leave pay out will now include certificate pay
- Elimination of required use of 80 hours vacation prior to requesting and receiving vacation balance payout
- Listing of all PERSable Certificates in the MOU
- ICMA type of Retirement Health Savings Plan option will be made to employees as soon as administratively possible