UPDATE: Tentative agreement reached on contract at around 1:45pm today. Brief meeting at 2:30pm Monday, Apr 25 and then they will post for 14 days so that membership can vote. Article 15 had some housekeeping changes. Article 31, the Pension will be a separate negotiation.
The negotiations between Lake Worth and the city employees regarding their union contract started 40 minutes late. The city Attorney, Finance Director and Human Resource Director were there representing the city. Sam Neimeiser, the Union Representative administrative organizer, was down from Tallahassee to oversee and help negotiate the contract. There were two caucuses during the time I attended to hash out the requests and suggestions by the union employee members.
Peter Atkinson who is on the negotiating team said, "We are here not to be unreasonable. Be good on your word and if you can't, show us the numbers. Don't insult us, please."
City attorney, Glen Torcivia said that the city was trying in good faith in a financial crisis. He did say that the city could afford the 30 year plan and 5/5/5 which is a 5% contribution from the employee, 5% from the city and 5% on their return on their investment.
The employees want the city to bring forth their best formal offer, something they have yet to do. They also want retroactive pay regarding their 4% raise that has been withheld during these negotiations. The meeting is supposed to end by 1pm and hopefully there will be a satisfactory agreement.
What about the pension? R they allowing all the ones before 010 to keep their pension??
ReplyDeleteI am advocating for WHAT'S right--WHAT'S fair. Other than that, I am not a fan of Unions. We happen to have them and must deal with our employees with integrity.
ReplyDeleteDon't know yet...that is something the city was caucusing over.
ReplyDeleteI pray they are able to retain their pensions
ReplyDeleteWe have proposed pension offers to the City we feel are very reasonable and sustainable, The City understand that our positions are flexible and ready to move on.
ReplyDeleteWe have another meeting set for April-25 @ 2:30 pm open to the public at City Hall. The City we hope will have their numbers and languages adjusted so we can move on.
We are optimistic that the City is ready to close on this agreement because the residents of Lake Worth deserve our utmost attention in serving the community.
Is the union going to forfit the pre 2010 pension plan?
ReplyDeleteHow did Mr. petrinos speech go? Was it positive?
ReplyDeleteFrom the start, the union positions on the pre-2010 pension plan were to grandfather those employees that fall into that bracket, we feel it's fear and is sustainable and so far the City have not brought us any numbers that would contradict that.
ReplyDeleteMr. Petrinos speech was to the point and challenged the integrity of the City to do the right thing. He also noted that the City was on the right track by offering to negotiate the pension separately, the unions was asking to do that all along,This would allow us to complete negotiation on the contract and take it back to our members for a vote. We have one more meeting scheduled for April-25 @ 2:30 pm and I hope with the right language's in place we should be able to seal the agreement and move on.
@anon 12:57--Not everyone has agree with everything their chosen party does or says. I know that seems shocking given the state of politics in this country today, but sometimes it actually happens.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, maybe we should have more than two parties? Maybe none?