New Haven, CT – After three years of negotiating with the city, nearly 800 New Haven clerical and professional management employes have a new contract.
Members of AFSCME Local 884, representing clerical employees, and AFSCME Local 3144, representing New Haven professional management employees, will benefit from the new agreements after working without an active contract for three years.
Approved by the full Board of Alders June 5, 2023, the contracts will take effect retroactively from July 1, 2020. The Local 884 contract extends to June 30, 2025, and Local 3144 contract until 2026.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, New Haven city employees were essential to maintaining and operating vital services for residents. They took emergency phone calls, updated and provided 50,000 laptops for students to work remotely when schools were closed, kept the community and schools safe and library programs running.
Despite the challenges the unions faced working through COVID without a contract and dealing with turnover of the city’s labor relations directors, the new contracts will help retain these essential employees and allow them to continue to do important work for the city.
“Our members are vital to meeting the needs of New Haven residents,” Local 3144 president, Gildemar Herrera, said. “We supported our community through the pandemic and will continue to post-pandemic.”
“For our members who worked tirelessly during the pandemic this contract makes a big difference,” Kym Bray, Local 884 president, said.
Local 884 Contract Brings “Better Way of Life”
Over 400 clerical employees who work as library workers, police records clerks, school security officers, administrative assistants, emergency dispatchers, and traffic and parking employees will benefit from the 5-year Local 884 contract.
It provides 3 percent general wage increases for each year of the contract and includes retroactive pay. The agreement transitions school security guards from 10-month employees to 12-month and increases payments of Other Post-Employment Benefits (OPEB) from 1.25 to 1.5 percent.
Medical coverage changes include an optional high deductible plan for existing employees that is automatic for new hires and a new prescription plan with cost savings of up to 4 percent. Local 884 and 3144 members will have the ability to designate their retirement benefits to other designees besides a spouse.
The contract was ratified by the union membership on April 26.
“The pay increases will bring a better way of life for a lot of people,” Kym Bray, president of Local 884 said. “Instead of working at another job for an extra couple of days, they will be able to make up for that money with one job. That means more time with their families.”
For Bray, who is a police records clerk in the New Haven Police Department, it was her first time participating in contract negotiations not only as a President but as a member.
“I learned about how things work on the union and city side and how to navigate certain conversations,” Bray said. “We have a handful of people who I know we can always count on and are always willing to jump in.”
One of those people is Chris Sugar, Council 4 staff representative attorney, who advocated for Local 884.
“I’m very happy to have worked at the table with the City to get this contract done for Local 884,” Sugar said. “It’s a reflection of how much our members mean and what they deserve in providing services to the citizens of New Haven.”
Since their next contract is right around the corner, Bray believes her experience through the negotiations process will better prepare her and the members.
“It’s a relief to finally have this contract,” Bray said. “So many members asked to just get it done. I’m a little better versed in what happens so for the next one we’ll try to make sure that everybody is seen. That's my hope.”
Local 3144 Contract Supports The “Betterment of Members”
The Local 3144 contract, ratified by members on May 12, covers roughly 400 professional management employees who oversee most agencies in the city.
It includes 2.75 percent general wage increases for years 2020-2022 and 3 percent general wage increases for the remaining years, including retroactive pay and step increases for the second and fifth year of the contract.
The step increases boost most members’ salaries by about 30 percent along a ten-step salary scale. At the top step, the contract will provide those employees with a roughly 18-percent salary increase. Those employees not eligible for step increases would receive a $1,000 one-time bonus.
According to Gildemar Herrera, who serves as IT Director for New Haven Public Schools District, the step increases were unprecedented. Since 1998, a majority of members have not received a step increase. For those not eligible for step increases, there was something for everyone in the contract.
“The salary increases will assist in the betterment of many members who have been unable to cover their basic needs,” Herrera said.
“This contract also continues to support the longer-serving employees through the benefit of longevity. We have more work to do, but this is good start.”
Council 4 Staff Representative Patrick Sampson was Local 3144’s advocate during contract negotiations.
“After a long negotiation process with many ebbs and flows, we are pleased with the outcome of the agreement,’ Sampson said. “This contract helps elevate our professional management members whose wages have been stagnated for years and better aligns their salaries with the vital work they do.”
Through the collaboration of Sampson and the Local 3144 negotiations team, the unit prevailed by not giving up on what they were fighting for.
“I can’t say enough of Patrick and the negotiations team,” Herrera said. “They went out and researched everything.”
President Herrera understands the importance and sometimes challenging work of the union to look beyond the individual worker and what divides the union membership by focusing on what brings them together.
“We negotiated to fulfill the needs of our members overall,” Herrera said.
Like a page out of the Rolling Stones songbook she adds, “Not everyone will get what they want, but we negotiate so everyone gets what they need.”
