After a year of contentious bargaining, the IBEW 1245 members working for Frontier Communications in Elk Grove accepted the Company’s “Last, Best Final Offer” and have ratified a new agreement by a vote of 27-5.
The agreement includes a series of three retroactive wage increases — 2% retroactive to September 25, 2022, 1.5% retroactive to March 26, 2023, and 1.5% retroactive to September 24, 2023 — as well as future increases of 1.5% effective March 24, 2024, 1.5% effective September 29, 2024, 1% effective March 30, 2025, 2% effective September 28, 2025, and 1.5% effective March 29, 2026.
The agreement also includes the addition of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday; increase in standby pay; increase in meal allowance; change to boot reimbursement to provide an annual allowance of $200; increase in the in-charge differential; implementation of a GPS TMS agreement, including coaching prior to discipline and a rolling time period in which infractions roll off the employee’s record; and removal of the 90-day limitation for utilization of accrued time for SDI supplementation. The union and company also agreed to end the post-retirement medical benefit once the retiree becomes eligible for Medicare.
These negotiations were particularly challenging, and we are grateful to the bargaining committee members who pushed through, including members Kenny Lawson, Emilion Cisneros, Ryan Stewart, and Matt Quinlan. The were joined on the committee by IBEW 1245 staffers Dylan Gottfried, Dominic McCurtain, and myself.
–Gerald Williams, IBEW 1245 Business Rep