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City council to consider two employee union contracts
YOUNGSTOWN
City council will consider two employee union contracts — both with base-pay salary freezes till the middle of 2014 — when it meets Wednesday.
It will be council’s first meeting since Aug. 18, and there are more than 50 pieces of legislation on the agenda. With two new members, council also will determine committee assignments at Wednesday’s meeting, which starts at 5:30 p.m.
Among the items for council to consider are two union contract ratification votes.
One is with the 45-member Youngstown Ranking Police Officers, and the other is with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2312, which represents 91 employees, primarily clerks, secretaries, aides and inspectors.
Both unions have already voted to approve the contracts.
YPRO’s current contract doesn’t expire until Dec. 1, 2012. The new deal extends the contract to May 31, 2014.
Officials on both sides said they wanted to extend the contract.
“We’ve negotiated significant freezes over a longer period of time,” said city Finance Director David Bozanich. “The union is forgoing salary increases in order to provide stability to the work force.”
“We thought it would be beneficial to the city and to us to extend the contract,” said police Detective Sgt. Charles Guzzy, YPRO’s president.
Also, Senate Bill 5, a bill subject to a repeal on the November election ballot, played a factor in approving a contract extension now, Guzzy said.
If voters approve the bill, Issue 2 on the ballot, it would reduce the collective-bargaining rights of public employees.
“It was a good time to do it considering SB 5,” Guzzy said.
Annual base-pay salaries for ranking officers range from $59,414.24 for an entry-level detective sergeant to $82,710.86 for captains after three years in that position. They also can get overtime pay. The proposed contract calls for no changes to health insurance, longevity pay, uniform allowance and hazardous-duty pay.
AFSCME Local 2312’s contract expired June 30.
The new three-year deal is retroactive to July 1.
Karen Humphries, union president, deferred comment to Deborah Bindas, an AFSCME staff representative in the Mahoning Valley. Bindas could not be reached by The Vindicator on Monday to comment.
Annual base-pay salaries for AFSCME Local 2312 range from $26,187 to $54,578.
In addition to the annual pay freeze, union members will continue to receive longevity pay bonuses of $60 a year up to 25 years of city service.
Union members will still pay 10 percent of their total monthly health-care premiums with caps. The caps are removed, effective May 1, 2014.
The city has recently approved three-year contracts with base-pay salary freezes with its water and wastewater employees.