008 Bargaining Update: 25 Days and Counting!
- UPE
- Mar 7
- 1 min read
Greetings, Union sisters and brothers. On March 6, 2025, your UPE 008 Bargaining Team met with County management for our 8th contract negotiation session. There was a very small amount of progress, almost none of it involving pay increases, with the sole exception of a minimal equity pay raise for two classifications out of the nine in our bargaining unit. In addition, the County did propose to let us have more Union stewards to represent our members, and that was progress, but we would probably need 100 more Union stewards to keep up with the County’s contract violations and mismanagement.
The County has still not moved off of its insulting 1% to 4% COLA pay proposal, nor has it moved off its proposal to give themselves the freedom to impose new medical costs on workers even while we have a labor contract in force.
The Union and the County are still far apart, especially on pay. And that is AFTER we gave them documentation proving our members’ productivity and the County’s inability to retain workers at current pay rates. The contract expires on March 31, 2025, and it seems more and more likely that it will take job actions to get a fair deal.
Here’s how you can help as a UPE member:
Wear red on Wednesdays.
Attend Bargaining Action Committee meetings and worksite Union meetings.
Participate in worksite “breakouts”.
Save your money in preparation for possible job actions.