Our Bargaining Team met with Management on June 29 for another day of mediation. 

While we don’t have a deal yet, we are pleased to report that we’ve won significant improvements to our seniority language. The Employer has agreed to change our layoff language so that an employee’s seniority will be the determining factor in layoff. This is significant because in the event of a layoff, long-term employees will be protected and the last to be affected by the layoff. 

We are also close to an agreement to add bumping language to our contract, which would allow long-term employees who are facing layoff to move into another position that they are qualified to perform the work. While we have no reason to believe layoffs are happening anytime soon, it’s great to have the peace of mind that we’ll be protected with this new language if it were to ever happen.

As for wages, the Employer did increase their wage proposal this session but not nearly enough to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living. They are also not willing to pay retro-pay back to when our contract expired last year, however, our Bargaining Team has held firm on our demands for retro-pay. We have gone without a raise for over a year and deserve to be compensated for this time, we know the Employer can afford it.

Management is playing the same broken record on wages, and we’re not buying it. It’s time for them to come to the table with a fair offer so that we can reach a deal and more forward. We look forward meeting with them again soon. 

“We need to stick together to ensure we get a fair deal.”
-Northwest Administrators Bargaining Team