City Council approves union contracts to increase wages

Home City News City Council approves union contracts to increase wages
City Council approves union contracts to increase wages

The Hillsdale City Council approved the renewal of two union contracts amid a disagreement over worker benefits at its meeting this week.

During the review of union contracts with the Teamsters Local 214 and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 876, Councilman Greg Stuchell sparred with Public Services Director Jake Hammel over worker benefits. 

The new Teamsters contract equalizes pay scales and increases wages over multiple years, according to the Teamsters contract. Wages will increase by $1 per hour in the first year. In the second and third years, wages will increase by 2.5% and 3% respectively. The contract also institutes paid days off for new hires instead of specially categorized sick and vacation days, provides a $750 signing bonus, and officially recognizes Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Stuchell said he saw no need to increase wages, as he believes city employees already have generous benefits packages.
“When you look at how they pay with vacation and sick time, those are extremely generous,” Stuchell said. “These hourly wage increases are costs that are extremely expensive in the long run.”

Hammel said he has lost several workers to more competitive employers.
“Aside from vacation, we can talk about hourly wages,” Hammel said. “I’ve lost people to Walmart Distribution Centers. I’ve lost people to Martinrea.” 

The council approved the Teamsters Contract 7-1, with Stuchell voting against it. Meanwhile, the council approved the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers contract, which passed 8-0.

The changes to the IBEW contract remained largely the same as the Teamsters contract, aside from a variety of percentage increases in annual wages for different classifications of jobs.

Mayor Adam Stockford said the city risked losing electrical workers if the contract was not competitive. 

“With the exception of police officers, this is the one position that we are constantly in danger of losing our skilled technicians,” Stockford said. 

Board of Public Utilities Director Chris McArthur said the BPU workers deserved their paycheck.
“I think we’ve seen these guys earn their paycheck in the last three storms,” McArthur said.

Stuchell said he applauded the electrical workers for their hard work during the recent storms. 

“Every job has a different classification,” Stuchell said. “What these people do is not only hard but extremely dangerous. They risk their lives when they’re working.”

Stuchell said the city needed to develop a retirement pension system to encourage workers to continue working in the city.
“We need to think about some kind of golden handcuffs which invest you in the city and it’s not profitable for you to leave,” Stuchell said. “At the place I worked at after so many years, you couldn’t make enough money someplace else, so that’s usually your retirement package.”
McArthur said the city had done away with its pension system for the BPU.

“We’ve done away with pensions,” McArthur said. “We’ve done away with all this stuff for the new hires. So a lot of that attraction which used to keep people here is just gone.” 

Stockford said it is difficult for small cities to compete against large corporate electric companies.

“We are a municipality trying to compete with the private market,” Stockford said. “Not only that, but we are competing against B&T and Consumers Energy which are monstrous, monstrous companies. They raise the rates sky high through commissions and then expect us to compete with them. They are bastards and are disgusting to me.” 

The council also proclaimed Oct. 15 as Pregnancy and Infant Loss Day to memorialize lives lost due to pregnancy complications, and approved three special assessment districts for road reconstruction for the Hillcrest, Riverdale, and Williams Court areas.