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City of Venice employees vote on a new rate increase
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
I was invited by the AFSCME Union vote today, regarding voting on the negotiated employee rate increase for the City of Venice. I have been covering the processes for a few weeks and it started prior to my decision to run for mayor. Coincidentally I am learning a lot about the process and meeting a lot of city employees, whom seem happy with the agreement. It has been an interesting experience. My minor at the University of Maryland was in Business Law, where we covered a lot of union activity. So, what may be boring to many is actually interesting to me.
The city employees are agreeing to:
- 9% increase across the board, the breakdown is 4.5% step and 5.5% Cost of Living increase
- Topped out employees will get a $2,5000 one time increase and a 5.5 Cost of living increase
- This is a three-year contract, with the option to reopen years two and three
- This covers 190 bargaining union employees will vote on the contract. Right now, about 60 employees are dues paying members. All will benefit from this deal, but the non-due paying members do not have representation when it comes to employment issues.
For the voting process the employees sign in, can see how much they will make with the new deal, and then they vote. The vote is cut off at 5:30 today. Not all employees have to vote, but it is encouraged. Once the vote is closed out, they will count the votes and the majority decides yes or no. The negotiated rates should be approved by the employees, whom seem to be happy with the rate increases.
The negotiated rates received approval from the Finance and City Managers office. The council will vote on the negotiated rates on October 25th and they should vote for the new agreement, since it is supported by the employees, city HR, the City Manager, and Finance Department.
There are some issues that have the employees upset. Today the city put out resolution 2022-28, which changes the amount of pay they will receive during civil emergencies. The issue is that employees that are working during a civil emergency will be paid the same rate as employees that go home. There is more to it, which you can see on the city website. Also, some concern with the amount being paid during charter officers during civil emergencies, which is over and beyond their normal salaries.
