BARGAINING UPDATE 

Your UAW Local 6000 bargaining team has come to a Tentative Agreement with the
Office of the State Employer on Saturday October 2nd on our new contract.
This agreement must ultimately be approved by you, the Membership. We will be
holding meetings, around the state, in the coming weeks or months with dates to be
determined. (Due to COVID, your meeting may have to be via Zoom) Please contact
your work site union steward or Local Rep if you are not sure of meetings in your
area.
UAW Local 6000 Chief and Job Stewards will be having a meeting on Friday
November 5th to have the contract proposal explained to them.
As of today, we do not know the exact dates that this will go out for a vote of the
membership.

Here is a brief synopsis of some of the highlights: This is a 3-year contract for
everything, but wages. For wages, it is a 2-year agreement with a contract re-opener
for the 3rd year. Most provisions in the new contract begin 1/1/2022, but wages begin 10/1/2022 and insurance benefits begin 1/1/2023.

Wages. We negotiated the biggest one (1) year October raise since the 1980’s:
a 5% raise for October 1, 2022 that will be followed by a 2% raise the
following October;

In addition our Longevity bonus is protected for the next three (3) years.

 

Insurances

Many of  the bargaining surveys from our members stated no increase in costs.
We met that request as there is no increase in the premium share percentage formula, deductibles or co-pays for the three (3) years covered by the contract beginning 1/1/2023.

In addition we have some newly added benefits in our Health, Dental and
Vision plans (including free Tele-medicine in the State Health Plan, in-network). The new added insurance benefits are too many to note here (but
include improvements in Health, Dental, Orthodontics, and Vision plans);
these will be explained when we have the contract explanation meetings.

 

Paid Holiday
We negotiated the first new paid holiday since we negotiated Election Day in
our 2005 contract; the new paid holiday is Juneteenth. (Juneteenth is
celebrated on June 19th. Since in 2022 this falls on a Sunday, this will be a
paid holiday for the first time on Monday June 20, 2022.)

Bereavement Leave

After many years of trying, we finally have an agreement to have paid
Bereavement leave for the day of the funeral of an employee’s spouse,
parent, child or sibling.

 

12 Week Paid Parental Leave

Also in regards to time off (12 week paid parental leave), which was agreed
to on a trial basis last year is now part of our contract for the next three (3)
years.

Non-Medical Leave
A new discretionary non-medical leave has been added to our contract. Waived
Rights leaves will now be easier to obtain.

Disciplinary Procedure
The discipline procedure including how you are notified if you are exonerated, and
when the date starts for how long discipline is on your record has some
improvements.
There are other changes in the contract as there are too many to note here

In addition, the Union and the State agreed to follow this up with a Letter of
Understanding regarding the ability to negotiate American Relief Plan funds for our
members, if any apply specifically to us.