Veolia Tentative Agreement

 

NEGOTIATIONS REPORT # 12   Summary of Tentative Agreement   MONDAY JULY 26, 2010

201 SECURES A TENTATIVE AGREEMENT

After 4 sessions with a Federal Mediator and 83 days of a Contract extension, Local 201 finally reached a tentative settlement with Veolia Water, N.A for a new 3 year Collective Bargaining Agreement. The agreement was reached at 4:30PM Friday July 23 in Boston. This was an extremely tough negotiation under terrible economic conditions. However, with the strong support of Veolia 201 members as well as political, community and area Union support; your negotiating committee was able to secure a new settlement package to recommend to you. There were some items in the package we did not like but we think the positives far outweigh the negatives. The economic part of the package is really solid, considering the state of the economy and the historic wage increases that Local 201 has secured at the plant since the first contract in 1994, stabilizing turnover at the facility.

Here is a Summary of the main points of the proposed Contract.

WAGES AND OTHER ECONOMIC ITEMS

Effective upon ratification - 2.0 % General Wage Increase

Effective May 1, 2011 - 2.0 % General Wage Increase

Effective May 1, 2012- 3.0 % General Wage Increase

 

  • ALL MEMBERS RECEIVE THE FIRST 2.0 % General Wage Increase.

  • The 9 operators, without a Grade 4 License, have until May 1, 2011 to obtain the G4 license to be eligible for the 2nd year wage increase. Otherwise, they would receive only a bonus of about $525 (no license) or $541(G2/ G3 license) and be frozen at their wage rate following the first immediate 2 % increase. Similar rules apply for the 3rd general wage increase. However, if the 3 operators with no license secure their G4 license before May 1, 2011 they would receive 8.8%in General Wage Increases in the first 10 months of this Contract! (Note: The Company originally proposed termination of these 3 operators if they did not get at least a Grade 1 license after one year.) If the 6 operators with a G2 license secure their G4 license before May 1, 2011 they would receive 5.6%in General Wage Increases in the first 10 months of the Contract!

  • The O & M Tech I (C) current rate is bumped up by $.13 per hour from $26.66 to $26.79 before first wage increase.

  • The Lead Operator Grade VII current rate is bumped up by $.15 per hour from $29.62 to $29.77 before first wage increase (in essence giving them a 2.5% total first year increase!)

  • The Maintenance Tech I "Start" rate is bumped up by $.97 per hour from $17.94 to $18.91 before first wage increase.

  • Current Operator Grade 5/6 rate of $28.07 is split apart, with G6 rate remaining @ 28.07before wage increases and Grade 5 set @ $26.88before wage increases. G6 operators must maintain license, complete qualifications requirements and be willing to fill in for Lead Operators to receive G6 pay when not doing Lead Operator duties. Otherwise they will receive G5 pay. (Note: The one current G5 operator would be "grandfathered" at his current G 5/6 rate and will receive the first year 2% increase on top of that. He will receive a $595 bonus in lieu of the second year 2% wage increase, unless he achieves a G6 license before next May 1, 2011 and completes qualification requirement for the G6 pay. He will receive a bonus in the third year if he does not achieve a G6 by then but in any event, the 3% third year wage increase would also put the new G5 rate over his grandfathered rate by $.18 per hour (which he would also receive in addition to the bonus) and he would be back in the regular wage structure going forward.

  • All new hires will be required to participate in the O &M Tech Training Program and complete the requirements within 3 years of hire date.

  • Shift Premium is increased effective upon ratification by $.05 per hour for Swing shift and Night shift.

  • NEW ANNUAL BONUS PROGRAM for employees possessing and utilizing Hydraulic (maximum 4 chosen by seniority) and/or CMV certifications (maximum of 3 required). Annual Hydraulic Bonus= $500.Annual CMV Bonus=$250. If in both program = $750 annually.

  • Improved Safety Bonus Program- quarterly employee award increased from $62.50 to $75.00and annual award increased from $250.00 to $300.0

  •  PENSION

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  • Our Defined Pension Benefit Plan, secured in the 2007 Contract, is maintained and formula improved from the current $.75 per hour to $.80 per hour (1/1/2012) and to $.85 per hour (1/1/2013)...( Note: amounts to about 2.8% of the "average" wage at the plant)

INSURANCE

  • Current Medical premium Cap formula is removed (helped us one year though).

  • New language will Cap the Company's standard national Medical premium increases at 20 %annually. If the increases go over 20% in a year, our members do not pay the amount above 20% that year.

  • In addition, if premium rates rise over 20% from the 2010 rates during the cumulative 3 year period 2011-2013, then members in the plans shall receive a $100 Bonus( Individual Coverage), $200 Bonus(Employee +1 or children, or$300 (Family Plan) in January of 2013.

  • Improved contract language in the event of a dispute between your doctor and company doctor regarding your ability to work.

  • Annual Benefits Seminar eliminated. Replaced with "on line" enrollment.

TIME-OFF

  • There is no additional "time-off" in the agreement. However, the Perfect Attendance program, which the Company proposed eliminating, remains with its potential of 3-5 additional days off annually.

  • The extra sick day, for members with 5 of more years service that was won a few contracts back, has been put in the accrual system formula to accrue 1.85 ( rather than 1.54) hours of sick leave on a bi-weekly basis up to a maximum of 48 hours (rather than 40) per year. However, this extra day now only will apply only to members hired prior to April 30, 2010. (Note: The union fought hard against this "new hire" part of the provision and this will be back on our agenda next contract).

  • There are a number of changes in the way different types of time off can be used, in terms of notification requirements and increments it can be used in. "Vacation 16" has been eliminated- that was 16 hours of vacation time that could be used with "less than 24 hours advance approval"and could be used in "1 hour increments".All vacation time now will require "a minimum of 24 hours advanced approval"and can be used only in "4 or 8 hour increments".Also, two of the Floating Holidays and the Personal Day have been changed from "less than 24 hours advance approval"to a "minimum of one hour advance approval".The original proposed Company changes were much worse but the union softened the changes.The Union also improved some time off usage by lowering the current Personal Day usage "increments of 8 hours” down to "increments of 1 hour" and the current usage for one of the Floating Holidays usage from "increments 8 hours" down to "increments of 4 or 8 hours".

  • The provision, that sick time supported by a doctor's note, would count for eligibility towards overtime and count for working the day before and after a holiday's eligibility requirement, was eliminated.

 

JOB SECURITY

 

  • Stopped Company from eliminating our No Layoff Clause

  • Stopped Company from removing the Lead Operators from the union.

  • Improved Contract language on sub-contracting of work - it can't be used for the purpose of avoiding overtime

 

Contract Language Changes

  • "Reasonable Suspicion" Alcohol/ Drug Testing added in Article 37 ( more liberal than the Company's standard program)

  • Improve clarification of Seniority definition in Article 16.7)

  • Clarified that higher pay on temporary assignment starts the first day in Article 17.

  • Clarified when Stewards get paid by the company in Article 11.

  • Other minor changes

SUMMARY

 

The economic part of this package is its strong point, keeping in mind the State OF THE ECONOMY. There are 3 decent General Wage increases, three classifications pay rates bumped before the increases, the potential for huge pay increases with the achieving of higher licenses for about 1/3 of the workforce,new bonuses for hydraulic/CMV certifications, increased safety bonuses,small increases in shift premiums as well as small increases in our relatively newly won defined pension plan. We achieved some protection from the "potential” of huge medical insurance premium rises. It was clearly not the protective language we wanted but it is better than most other Veolia Contracts we have seen, that have no such protections.

On Job Security, we did not win a "no attrition clause" but we defended our "No layoff clause" from Company proposals to eliminate it. We also defended our Lead Operators from Company attempts to remove them from the bargaining unit (and got their pay rate bumped to boot) before the General Wage Increases. We also improved sub-contracting language.

We did not win any additional time off and we got stuck with more restrictive language on the use of such time. We spent weeks trying to fend off the barrage of Company proposals on this matter. We dulled the impact of some of them and we stopped them from eliminating our Perfect Attendance Program and its potential to accrue to 3 to 5 extra days off a year.

In summary, we feel like we more then held our own in these negotiations thanks to solid support from you all. We will be having a membership meetings next week to go over the "tentative" agreement in detail and then there will be secret ballot votes following both sessions of the split meeting.