Public works union has new contract

Unionized workers in the town's Public Works Department have a new three-year contract, after seven months of waiting and negotiations.

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Public works union has new contract
By Susan Smallheer Herald Staff - Published: February 13, 2008

SPRINGFIELD — Unionized workers in the town's Public Works Department have a new three-year contract, after seven months of waiting and negotiations.

Springfield Town Manager Robert Forguites announced Tuesday that the town Select Board had endorsed a new contract for the workers in both the public works department and the water and sewer department.

Workers will receive a 2.5 percent pay increase, retroactive to last July 1, when their last contract expired. The pact calls for a 2.5 percent pay increase in the second year, and 3 percent in the final year.

In all, about 33 people are members of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 98.

Linda Rousse, the town's personnel director, said the union's contract had expired last July and the town and the union had been negotiating in good faith since that time.

Rousse said all the unions representing town employees had their contracts expire in July, but the public works department was the first to be resolved.

Rousse said she hoped to have a settlement next week with the police department and the library trustees. She said the fire department would probably take a little longer, largely due to illness of one of the negotiators.

Brian Dana, a longtime negotiator for Local 98, and the assistant chief operator at the town's wastewater treatment plant, said the new health care policy will save the town money. He said the union had voted on the new contract last week.

Dana said the International Union of Operating Engineers has a large number of members, and that through that organization Local 98 "can get increased benefits for less cost. We can get dental and vision, and cost the town less.

"Health care is a national, national problem," said Dana, who added the delay in reaching a settlement was over the health care issue.

"We kept going back and forth, looking at different avenues and this is what we came up with. It was a long time coming," said Dana.

Forguites said the Select Board met behind closed doors Monday night and endorsed the settlement.

The biggest change in the public works contract was a change in health insurance policies: the union opted to switch to a health plan sponsored by its union rather than Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, which has previously covered the town employees.

Rousse said the public works employees would contribute 3 percent toward its health premiums and she said the new plan included expanded benefits, including dental and vision for both employees and their families, as well as an expanded life insurance policy and short-term disability.

She said the IUOE's health policy is administered through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. She said the change would take effect April 1.

"Wages and insurance are always the main sticking points," Rousse said. "There are no big money impacts."

Rousse said there were some changes in contract language dealing with working hours and working different classes. "They have a pretty good contract and there (weren't) a lot of changes there," she said.

She noted the public works department had been unionized for more than 25 years. http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008802130383