Danbury BOE Secretaries & IT Employees overwhelmingly approved terms of the Tentative Agreement for a new successor collective bargaining agreement during a recent ratification process.
A major item during these negotiations was the health insurance. From the onset of the negotiations the District was seeking to migrate employees from a High Deductible Health Savings Account (HSA) to a High Deductible Health Reimbursement Account/Arrangement (HRA). In addition, the District was seeking to significantly lower the Employer funding into the HDHP plan for the employees.
As negotiations commenced, the Paraeducators bargaining unit represented by CSEA/SEIU Local 2001 had their contract arbitration award issued. This arbitration award was referenced throughout negotiations by the District as the vast majority of the issues, including but not limited to: losing one year of retroactive wage increases, migrating all employees to a HRA insurance plan, significant employee cost share increases, and reduction in the Employer insurance funding levels, to name a few.
During the course of UPSEU’s negotiations, the Union was able to incorporate the Technology Aides whom were previously represented by the Paraeducator union (CSEA/SEIU Local 2001) into the Secretarial/IT UPSEU collective bargaining contract. In addition, we were able to secure additional work days and hours for the Tech Aides, as well as substantially increasing the hourly rate of pay for these employees. Also, the Union eliminated language which previously prevented the IT staff from receiving overtime pay. The Union maintained the HDHP HSA insurance plan and the Employer funding amounts in each year of the contract. We also were successful in securing language improvements as well as above market wage increases, including a new IT wage grid.
Newly elected Unit President, Sandy Sanchez had the following comment concerning the process, "Negotiations were handled as a unit and I'm confident our members were satisfied with the end result."
Unit Vice-President, Linda Rosso noted “Our Union had the pleasure of having Matt Geer work with us during our recent contract negotiations. Matt's guidance through the negotiation process was invaluable. His expertise in this area was apparent and was appreciated by the team members. Our options were clearly explained during each step and I felt very confident that we were getting excellent representation while being encouraged to think for ourselves. We came out of negotiations with a tentative agreement that pleased virtually every member. Many thanks to UPSEU!”
UPSEU Regional Director, Matt Geer stated, "Many thanks to our negotiating committee consisting of Wendy Burke, Jennifer Carey, Angela Cefaloni, Linda Rosso, Barbara Savo, Yevgeniy Skylar and Sandy Sanchez. Their respective efforts, passion, time and dedication were an integral part of this process and I can say without any reservation that they displayed a high level of advocacy during the course of negotiations."
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