SALEM Utilities commission, workers OK contract

Pay raises are provided each year of the agreement.
SALEM -- The city utilities commission approved a three-year labor contract with city utility workers, who also have assented to the pact.
Whether its implemented will depend on approval by city council, which is expected to review the matter when it returns from its August break.
The utilities commission approved the contract Tuesday.
The agreement with Utilities Workers Local 560 calls for a pay raise of 3.75 percent, effective retroactively to July 1. The union's contract expired June 30.
Pay raises of 4 percent are granted in 2002 and 2003.
The raises will be applied to a wage scale that, under the former contract, had a highest hourly wage of $16.05 and a lowest hourly wage of $9.43.
Sixteen employees in the city's water and sewer departments are affected by the agreement.
Utilities Superintendent Don Weingart was not immediately certain today how much the contract will cost the city if it's approved.