Union OK's 3-year deal with Toledo

3/6/2001

The union representing 240 city supervisors, professional, and technical workers has agreed to a three-year contract that will grant members wage increases of slightly more than 9 percent over three years.

Local 2058 of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, approved the contract by a vote of 145 to 24, according to a news release from Mayor Carty Finkbeiner's office.

City council must approve the contract and is expected to vote on it at its meeting tonight.

The contract includes a 2 percent increase in the contribution the city would make to the employees' retirement fund for the workers over the life of the contract, which expires in 2003.

The agreement is similar to one Teamsters Local 20, which represents city trash collectors and sanitation workers, approved in December, the mayor said.

Local 2058's contract expired May 31. This contract is retroactive to June 1, said Marsha Serio, human resources director.

The administration had reached a tentative pact with the union in June, which granted the same raises, but only a 1 percent increase in the city's contribution to the retirement fund. The union, however, rejected that pact, Mrs. Serio said.

Negotiations with the union have been ongoing since April and resulted in a federal mediator being called over money issues in June.