City, union reach deal

Leaders of the city of Spokane’s largest labor union have reached a tentative agreement with city officials to delay wage increases and to pay more for health coverage as a way to ease ongoing budget problems.

Mayor Jim West described the tentative deal – pending approval by the City Council and membership of Local 270 – as a possible way out of the city’s perennial budget crisis.

But at a Monday afternoon press conference to announce the agreement, West said it probably comes too late to influence the outcome of today’s ballot proposal to raise property taxes for two years.

“I would have liked to have had this two or three weeks ago,” West said of the agreement reportedly reached at midafternoon Monday and worth as much as $2 million over two years.

The agreement is not contingent on today’s results, but the union and the council will both know the outcome of the election before they vote on the agreement. Six other bargaining units representing different groups of city workers are being asked to make concessions in health-care coverage as well, but no agreements have been reached.

City Proposition 1, which asks voters for permission to raise property taxes above a state-mandated “lid,” is a critical piece in a three-part plan to close a projected $6.8 million hole in the general fund budget. An increase in the utility tax, which the City Council is considering, is the second part of the plan, with wage and benefit concessions from the city’s unions the third.

Local 270 is the city’s largest union, and includes many of its lowest-paid workers, a fact West mentioned twice during an afternoon briefing with news reporters.

Under the agreement, the current labor contract scheduled to expire at the end of 2006 would be extended a year, and a 3 percent raise scheduled to take effect next April would be delayed until October. A 2 percent raise scheduled for next October would be delayed until July 2007, and workers would get a 3 percent raise in October 2007.The union leaders also tentatively agreed to a less-expensive dental insurance plan that limits them to so-called preferred providers – dentists who have agreed to a standard of payments for services.

Employees would also begin paying 25 percent of the cost of dependent health care premiums beginning in July 2007. Under the current contract, the employee share of dependent premiums goes from 10 percent to 20 percent at the start of next year.

The city’s current $6.8 million cash crisis comes a year after $18 million and 152 tax-funded jobs were cut for 2005.

Without substantial tax increases or employee givebacks, the mayor and City Council could be forced to lay off firefighters, police officers, librarians and others who are paid out of the general fund, currently expected to be about $127 million with inclusion of the tax increases and potential employee givebacks.

Joe Cavanaugh, president of Local 270, said union member jobs are at risk, and the tentative agreement gives the city an opportunity to avoid additional layoffs in 2006.

“We have 350 members at risk,” he said of the number of members who work in services covered by the general fund.

A large contingent of the union’s membership works in city utilities. The proposed wage and benefit givebacks are expected to reduce costs in utility funds, helping hold down future rate increases.

Local 270 is expected to continue to talk with the mayor and his administrative staff about more detailed changes to health care coverage in what both sides are describing as a collaborative effort to fashion health plans that are cost-efficient but also fair to workers.

While West described the agreement as “an effort to prevent layoffs,” he refused to rule them out, even if all parts of the budget plan come together.

“There are no guarantees at all,” West said.

City Councilman Brad Stark said he applauded city management and the leaders of Local 270 for reaching the agreement.

“I think it’s a great first step and hopefully the other unions will follow through,” Stark said after the council was briefed on the tentative deal in a closed-door executive session.

Lt. Greg Borg, president of Local 29 firefighters union, said his group is considering concessions in dental care and dependent care health premiums. But firefighters are waiting to see whether voters will approve the increase in the property tax levy in today’s election before making a commitment to givebacks.

City officials are currently in contract talks with the Police Guild, the city’s management and professional association and a union representing higher-ranking fire department officers for new labor pacts to replace contracts that expire at the end of this year.