WARREN Council to vote on management pensions

The city pays pension pickup for other unions, the fact finder points out.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Council members will consider this week whether to accept a fact finder's recommendation that members of the city's management union receive pension pickup.
Two pieces of legislation -- one accepting the fact finder's report and the other rejecting it -- are before council at its meeting Wednesday.
The city and the Warren Management Association, which represents managers throughout the city, have reached an impasse in their negotiations.
The union argues that the city should institute a pension pickup program of 2.5 percent of the employee's gross wage.
In stating its argument, the union points out that the city pays pension pickup for other unions' members.
"The union contends it is inappropriate for some groups of city employees to have the pension pickup benefit and others not," wrote fact finder Harry Graham in his recommendation last week. "Simple equity demands a recommendation on its behalf."
City's finances good
The fact finder also wrote that the city can't claim inability to pay, citing news articles about the city's good fiscal condition. The union's proposal is estimated at $35,178.
In its argument against the union's proposal, city officials said that when other bargaining unions received pension pickup, it was in lieu of a wage increase. But WMA employees are scheduled to receive a 3 percent wage increase.
Because other city unions receive pension pickup at a higher rate than that sought by WMA, the fact finder's recommendation favors the union.
"The weight of equity, of fairness, of simple equal treatment favors the union without reservation," the fact finder said.
Councilman Robert A. Marchese, D-at large and chairman of council's finance committee, hasn't taken a position on the recommendation.
"I want to see what the administration's stand on it is," he said.
denise.dick@vindy.com