FINAL ARBITRATION DECISION

8/24/09

 

Hello Brothers and Sisters.  I just received notification on the arbitrator's final decision on negotiations.  Arbitrator Richard Bloch handed down a decision of a wage freeze until our next negotiations in 2010.  In his decision, he stated that he felt the contractor's request for a cut was excessive, but that our request for an increase exceeded even what we were awarded last year when work was good.  He also felt that, with the uncertainty of the work situation, it would neither make sense to cut wages, nor to add additional costs to the contractors while they are trying to get work in today's economy.  Although I am not happy with having to take a freeze, our hope was that we would only take a wage increase after making sure our benefits were shored up for the year; so even a small increase may not have been reflected in our wages ultimately if the membership so chose to allocate an increase to benefits.  

 

For now, we continue as we have been.  Look for both parties to work on getting an arbitrator set up earlier next year as this process has proven to take much longer than the Council on Industrial Relations.  The full Agreement is up for negotiations in 2010.  We will be asking for your ideas as we prepare for them, so put on your thinking caps.  Finally, I want to thank everyone who participated in this negotiations process; the Negotiations Committee, all of you who shared your thoughts and ideas and showed up at the mid-negotiations meeting to let us know that you overwhelmingly wanted us to take this argument all the way, and our outstanding attorney who put up a great fight at the arbitration hearings. 

 

God bless you all, and take care of each other.

Dean