Assembly and union reach 3-year contract agreement

Wrangell's City and Borough Assembly and the city's public employees union finally reached a settlement over a collective bargaining agreement last week, bringing to a close three years of negotiations.

On July 13 Assembly members voted to implement a proposed amendment to the contract terms it had imposed the previous month, which had taken effect at the start of the new fiscal year on July 1. The amendment was the product of negotiations between International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 representatives and city administrative staff, resumed after the end of a weeklong strike on June 29.

Terms of the initial contract, which the Assembly had voted on June 20 to implement after negotiations with the union had reached an impasse earlier in the month, had altered the 16-step wage table for the 24 represented employees, dropping its bottom six steps and adding three more to the top end. Based on performance, skill level and duration of employment, each successive step marks a two-percent increase. The contract terms also had a $0.75 wage increase across the board, short of IBEW's proposed $2.50 increase.

City staff had demonstrated the lesser increase amply covered increased costs to unionized employees, who starting July 1 would be expected to contribute 15 percent toward monthly health insurance premium costs as part of the new contract conditions. A substantial increase in insurance costs over the past few years coupled with decreasing revenue availability from the state and federal governments had prompted this cost-sharing measure, which had been ordered for all city employees by a resolution of the Assembly in June 2016.

The $0.75 increase would cover added costs to workers on a single health package, but would not entirely do so for those on a plan covering spouses or children as well. IBEW's position was that this uncompensated cost was effectively a pay cut. After Wrangell's assembly voted to adopt its proposal unilaterally on June 20, the union filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the Alaska Labor Relations Board the following day, with workers taking up pickets on June 22.

Departments impacted by the strike included the city's electrical and water utilities, maintenance and harbor services, garbage pickup and Public Works Department staff. While temporary workers and reduced staff were able to sustain most services to the city, roadside trash collection was put on hold during the seven-day strike. Residents were encouraged to deliver their own garbage to the waste transfer facility, though that system was not put to the test during the busy July 4th weekend.

In concluding its strike the following week, IBEW withdrew its labor complaint in exchange for a return to negotiations with the city. Resulting from those discussions was an amendment to the contract already in place as of July 1. Union-represented employees voted on July 10 to accept the terms of this amendment, which would accept the $0.75 wage increase and table modifications, but would tier the individual share of costs for health insurance by date of hire, or July 1, 2011. Those hired before that date, or most of the 24 workers involved in the contract, would only pay 10 percent of their monthly insurance premium costs. Under the previous CBA which expired July 2014, those workers had not been obliged to contribute any amount toward insurance. Those hired after the 2011 cutoff were already covering some cost to their insurance packages, and would still contribute 15 percent under the proposed amendment.

Approved by the union bargaining unit, the proposed amendment was put forward to the Assembly by Wrangell's interim manager, Carol Rushmore. Meeting July 13, after an hour-long meeting in executive session with city attorney Bob Blasco and finance director Lee Burgess, members in a 6-1 decision approved the proposal's terms, with member Mark Mitchell the sole nay vote. The contract remains in effect until June 30, 2020.