Norwalk Should Learn From Bridgeport; Union Contract Delivers Wage Freeze & Furlough

Remember those administrative contracts that were rubber stamped through both the BOE and the Common Council? Look at how Bridgeport handles it union negotiations:

A city union representing school and municipal employees has ratified a new four-year contract that freezes wages for two years and requires workers to take a five-day, unpaid furlough.

The agreement reached with Local 1522, Council 4 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, was announced Tuesday by city officials. The union represents 761 workers.

The deal freezes salary increases for the first two years. In the final two years, salaries increase by 2.5 percent every six months from July 1, 2010, through Jan. 1, 2012. In addition, union members will take five days off without pay between now and the end of the school year in June 2009.

Altogether, the concessions amount to $1.15 million in savings, said city Budget Director Thomas Sherwood. On the school side, Sherwood said there should be $613,000 in savings when salaries paid by grants are factored out.
Robert Henry, chief of staff for the school system, challenged that figure, saying the savings is closer to $500,000.
A tentative agreement was reached Jan. 16 between the city and union leaders, and the contract was ratified late last week. It next goes to the City Council for review.

Anna Montalvo, president of Local 1522, did not return repeated phone calls for comment.

Although 642 of the union’s employees work for the school system as classroom and library aides, special education van drivers and clerical workers, the contract is negotiated by the city. On the city side, the union represents about 119 sanitation, parks, road and recycling workers. On average, Local 1522 workers make about $33,000 a year.

Roughly one-third of Local 1522 employees are paid from state and federal grants. The city cannot recoup savings realized by the zero-salary increase and furloughs for those employees. Sherwood suggested the Board of Education still might be able to keep those dollars and spend them on other school expenses.

As part of the deal, there would be no layoffs of collective-bargaining unit employees through June 30, 2010.
Adam Wood, chief of staff for Mayor Bill Finch, called the negotiations long but fair to the workers. He said that when raises do kick in, so does a health benefit reopener that could affect employee premium costs.

Henry said the no-layoff clause potentially hampers the flexibility of the school board in making budget decisions best for the students. The board is facing the strong possibility of zero-budget increases from the city and state in the next fiscal year.

Sherwood said that if the AFSCME workers aren’t getting raises and aren’t adding to the cost, “why should you have to cut them?”

Already, 61 school employees, including Supt. of Schools John Ramos and his top administrators, have agreed to take furloughs of up to five days once the board approves a giveback package. Other school employees who have agreed to take furloughs include 21 tradespeople, seven department coordinators and 26 unaffiliated workers.

Henry told the board Monday that the Bridgeport Education Association, which represents city teachers, has decided not to negotiate any concessions. A five-day furlough among teachers could have reaped $4.4 million in savings, according to school officials.

Sherwood said teachers still have an option to come back to the table and bargain.

Also, no concessions have come from the Bridgeport Council of Administrators and Supervisors, which represents school principals and other middle managers.

So far, the school system has identified $2 million in potential savings toward a city request that it not spend $7 million of the $215 million budget it was given for the 2008-09 fiscal year.
Mayor Bill Finch is seeking the $7 million to help plug a projected $20 million deficit in the city budget this fiscal year.

source: Connecticut Post, Bridgeport union agrees to furloughs, wage freeze, By Linda Conner Lambeck, 01/27/2009