'1183' Takes a Short One
2 CWA Locals Cut DC 37-Type Deals

By RICHARD STEIER

Three Communications Workers of America locals representing city employees reached agreements on contract terms with the Bloomberg administration last week, with two of the deals closely approximating the one made by District Council 37 earlier this summer.

One of them, Board of Elections Local 1183, opted not to match the DC 37 terms, instead agreeing to a 13-month deal that actually came to an end on Aug. 7. Under its terms, the union's members will get an additional 1-percent raise based on productivity that is a carryover from their previous contract, retroactive to July 1, 2004, plus a 3.15-percent raise retroactive to July 4, 2005 The latter raise is consistent with the one given to virtually all municipal unions for that period since the United Federation of Teachers made its last contract deal 11 months ago.

Others Take Pattern

The other locals, 1181 and 1182, which represent Associate Traffic and Sanitation Enforcement Supervisors and Parking, Sanitation and Traffic Enforcement Agents, respectively, chose to reach deals of slightly more than 32 months that are consistent with the DC 37 pact in virtually all aspects.

The Local 1181 accord, which includes the 1-percent raise from the last deal payable as of July 1, 2004, actually begins July 4, 2005 and expires March 15, 2008. On the first day of the pact there will be a 3.15-percent raise, followed by a 2-percent hike of Sept. 15, 2006 and a 4-percent increase on March 15, 2007.

Local 1182 members, assuming they ratify their deal, would get the same wage hikes, except that the 2-percent raise would take effect retroactive to Sept. 9, 2006 and the 4-percent one would be payable as of March 9, 2007, with the contract expiring exactly a year later.

In both cases, union members would get a $100 annual increase in the city's contribution to their welfare funds retroactive to July 4, 2006 - a provision that also applies under the Local 1183 deal - and would get the equivalent of .34 percent in added compensation in some form paid on the final day of their contracts.

The pacts for Locals 1181 and 1182, if ratified, would serve to subtract them from the diminishing coalition of municipal unions that was formed for bargaining purposes in late June. They would be the fifth and sixth members of what was then a 20-union coalition to have reached contract terms since that time. Local 1183 could conceivably remain in the coalition, since the raise it negotiated last week covers a period for which most other coalition members are already under contract.