Lincoln City Council to consider contract rejected by employee union | #citycouncil

The Public Association of Government Employees’ contract before the City Council on Monday was on first reading, which means the council will not hold a public hearing or vote on it until Sept. 25.

Union President Zach Chapo said the proposed contract before the City Council is the one the union voted down in August, leaving the union and the city at an impasse.

PAGE and the Lincoln Firefighters Union both rejected “last best offers” by the city, leaving them at an impasse – an unusual situation for city unions. PAGE hasn’t been at an impasse since 2013. Firefighters haven’t been in that situation since the 1990s.

There were several options after the unions rejected the “last best offer”: the two sides could have come back to the bargaining table, either side could have filed a lawsuit with the Commission of Industrial Relations, or the city could implement its “last best offer” and bring it to the council, which is what has happened.

The key issue for the union is pay, and it rejected the 3% increase last offered by the city, which the union felt wasn’t sufficient to address a staffing shortage and inflation.

Two years ago, the city wanted to enter into a three-year contract with the union, offering a 2.5% increase in the third year. Chapo said the pandemic was still in full swing then, and because of that uncertainty and because they wanted a higher increase, they agreed to a two-year contract.

They took a 1% lump-sum payment during the pandemic, he said.

This year, the city’s first offer was 1%, Chapo said. By the end of negotiations the city landed at 3%, he said, though the union’s last offer was 5% with an additional raise for jobs more than 5% behind those included in a market study.

The proposed contract, however, does extend the city’s new parental leave policy to the union members.

How the city has handled its new parental leave benefit with the unions has been an issue for several of the groups – including PAGE. The new policy, which gives six weeks of parental leave to employees, was approved by the City Council in April, and it was extended to non-union employees in June.

But city officials said national labor rules require that any benefit – even one considered a gift – needs to be negotiated through the union.

Three of the city unions entered into agreements adding parental leave, but others have not, and some of those union officials say the city has used or attempted to use that new benefit as a bargaining chip. None of the county unions have agreements adding that benefit, according to the human resources website.

A lawsuit over the parental leave issue filed with the Commission of Industrial Relations by the union that represents county corrections employees is pending. The lawsuit alleges that excluding union employees from the benefit is a prohibited practice and it asked that corrections employees be given the benefit retroactive to June.

However, the proposed contract for the street maintenance, technical and clerical employees before the council now includes that benefit.

If the City Council approves the PAGE contract, the union could appeal to the Commission of Industrial Relations. Chapo said that’s something the members would have to discuss if the council approves the contract.

More than a month ago, the city issued a similar “last best offer” to the Lincoln Firefighters Union, and it has yet to come before the council. The city agreed to add parental leave, but because the two sides haven’t reached an agreement yet, firefighters still don’t have the benefit.