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Youngstown Street Dept. workers to vote on OK’ing pact or striking
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
The 31-member city street department union will decide as early as April 19 whether it will take the administration’s “last, best and final” contract offer or go on strike, its president/business agent said.
The Teamsters Local 377 has already rejected two other contract proposals from the city, including one on Thursday, said Sam Prosser, its president and business agent.
The union agreed to every term in the proposed contract except a change to out-of-classification pay and the elimination of job bidding based on seniority, Prosser said.
Under a 2008 grievance settlement with the city, union members transferred to a higher job classification received the highest rate of pay in that job.
City council and the administration doesn’t oppose paying a higher wage for a transfer. But not at the maximum amount, according to an executive summary of the contract.
The top rate is about $1.60 to $3.70 per hour more than what the city is willing to pay, according to the summary. The city is willing to pay the second highest level, Mayor Jay Williams said.
Also, the union wants the city to permit job bidding based on seniority as long as the employee is qualified for the job, Presser said.
That policy ended three years ago, Williams said.
“It’s inefficient and ineffective,” he said. “An inordinate amount of time is spent gearing up for the bidding process and then going out to the jobs. It takes away time from the actual work.”
The city administration will meet Monday or Tuesday to discuss proposed changes to the contract and then meet with union officials on Wednesday or Thursday to present its “last, best and final contract offer,” Williams and Prosser said.
The union members will meet early the following week to vote on accepting the offer or to strike, Prosser said.
The old contract, that increased base pay by about 6.9 percent over three years, expired Dec. 31, 2009.
The Teamsters agreed to a three-year pay freeze — as have other city unions in the past few months.