The IBEW 1245 members employed at the City of Ukiah have unanimously approved a new MOU by a vote of 14-0. The City Council also approved the agreement, which was reached after four days of bargaining.
The new agreement includes general wage increases of 4% in 2018, 3% in 2019 and 3% in 2020, with the third year tied to sales tax and TOT benchmarks (if those benchmarks are not met, the the cost-of-living adjustment would be the April 2019 CPI for the San Francisco Bay Area). The agreement also contains new language allowing members to cash out vacation time up to 40 hours, once per year, along with new overtime definition language, including double-time for all hours worked over 12 consecutive, as well as double-time for non-scheduled holidays.
The union also secured an increase in compensatory time off (CTO) accumulation, amounting to 50 hours of CTO cash out (up two hours from the previous agreement), as well as health and welfare benefit improvements to reflect a 85%/15% medical premium split including dental and vision for new hires. This option is also available to incumbents who are currently on City medical plans, and incumbents who wish to participate and are not on medical plans may do so during open enrollment.
The bargaining committee consisted of Linemen Ben Keffeler and James Jeffers.
–JV Macor, IBEW 1245 Business Rep