City reps set to vote on pacts with unions
Deals pending for Stamford teachers and hygienists
STAMFORD — The city’s smallest labor union, the four-member union of dental hygienists, has agreed to forgo pay raises in exchange for no layoffs.
The largest, the 1,400member union of teachers, will take pay raises without assurance against layoffs, though raises are smaller than usual and job losses are unlikely.
Amid the city’s quest to save money in a 2020-21 budget riddled with pandemic uncertainty, the hygienists have OK’d a contract like those of three other unions that agreed to no-raise concessions.
By keeping their salaries flat, the hygienists will save the city $13,718 for the two years of the contract, and $10,647 over six months once they switch to a less expensive state healthinsurance plan.
The teachers, who already belong to the state plan, have tentatively agreed to a contract that will cost the city an increase of $2.7 million.
It could have cost a lot more.
“The average settlement that has been agreed to by 28 other school districts in Connecticut this year includes an increase of 2.7
percent; for this settlement it’s 2 percent,” said Andy George, president of the Stamford Board of Education. “This settlement could have cost $3.6 million instead of $2.7 million.”
The Board of Representatives is set to vote on the contracts Dec. 7.
The teachers’ agreement was reached Nov. 9, hours before the matter was to go to a state arbitration panel, said Board of Finance member Geoff Alswanger, a member of the negotiating committee.
If the contract had gone to arbitration, the increase likely would reflect the state average, Alswanger said.
“The arbitrators would look at the awards reached in other settlements, and the decision for Stamford probably would not have deviated much from the 2.7 percent,” Alswanger said.
Stamford teachers’ increases are based on 16 steps they climb one year at a time. In the spring, when city officials determined that the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic would reduce budget revenue by more than $32 million, teachers were asked to give up their 202021 increases, as other unions did.
“They declined. They said they had a contract in place for those increases,” George said. “In these latest
negotiations, we asked them for no or minimal increases. This time they agreed to go up half a step instead of a full step.”
It means teachers with 16 or fewer years in the union get an increase of 0.5 percent next year, and those beyond the step limit get a 1.125 percent hike, Alswanger said. The contract runs from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022.
During that time the cost to taxpayers will decline because of “vacancy savings,” Alswanger said.
“It has to do with retirements,” he said. “If a toptier teacher making $110,000 a year retires, they are replaced by a teacher who makes $60,000 less.”
In a typical year, about 30 teachers retire, he said.
It’s an advantage to the city that the teachers’ contract runs one year instead of the usual three, Alswanger said.
“There are many economic unknowns in city and state budgets because of COVID. Having a oneyear contract allows time for the settlements to shake out,” he said. “All of it may present a different picture next year. The whole landscape can change.” George agreed. “After the one-year contract we will go back and see what the finances of the city are in the next budget cycle,” George said. “Then we will be back at the bargaining table with the teachers.”
Rep. Susan Nabel, D-20, a member of the Board of Representatives Personnel Committee, which approved both agreements Monday, said she was struck by a term in the teachers’ next contract.
“The biggest change was the language on paying union dues,” Nabel said. “I was wondering when they would catch up with federal law on that.”
The contract was altered to reflect a 2018 ruling by the U.S. Supreme court in Janus v. AFSCME that public employees do not have to pay union fees or dues, even if unions bargain on their behalf.
The concern is that unions could be in jeopardy if members take the benefits of collective bargaining without paying for it. The language in the contract now says teachers “may” join the union, changed from “shall” join.
Teachers union President Diane Phanos did not return a request for comment.
Mayor David Martin began seeking concessions from the 10 city unions and four school unions during budget season, just after the pandemic hit in March. Martin said that, without concessions, 10 percent of municipal employees would be laid off.
In June the city reached agreements with UAW Local 2377, which represents 335 employees who work an array of city jobs, and the MAA, which represents 115 city managers. Both agreed to forgo an annual raise and switch to the cheaper State Partnership Medical Plan. In return, the city would not lay off members of those unions.
In July the city reached a similar agreement with the 38 members of the Stamford Municipal Nurses Association.
Despite the dire predictions, only two teachers have been laid off, and more are unlikely because there are vacancies, George said.
The school board minimized layoffs by not renewing interim contracts for non-tenured teachers; by funding 25 positions using federal pandemic relief money; and because the number of retirements was higher than expected, George said.
“We went into the budget cycle believing we would have to eliminate 136 positions,” George said. “But we made up a lot of ground. We had 1,433 teaching positions last year; we have 1,396 now. So, overall, 37 positions were removed.”
Superintendent Tamu Lucero said she’s glad the school district came to terms. “When negotiating a contract, especially in the midst of a pandemic, we are very pleased to be able to find common ground,” Lucero said.
Nabel said the teachers’ raises are well-earned.
“I am not a wholesale subscriber to the fact there should be salary increases every time for every union, but the teachers are being asked to do so much more during this pandemic, and that needs to be recognized,” Nabel said.