A Message from Business Manager Chris Erikson
Labor peace and a three-year collective bargaining agreement were ratified at a special meeting last Thursday. The vote in the packed Hall was unanimous to accept the contract. Despite the major challenge to properly fund the Welfare Plan for the next three years, which we did, there were improvements in wages and benefits. We were also able to improve the pensions for active members and get an increase for our retirees as well. We also negotiated an enhancement to the NEBF – the new NEIB (National Employee Individual Benefit) – which will raise the base $33.00 NEBF Pension Credit each year going forward. The complete list of changes to the agreement will be printed in the next issue of the Electrical Union World. I want to commend the 'A' Negotiating Committee and its Chairman Joe Canino, who represented all of you with distinction.
In addition, Local 3 successfully came to agreements on improved contracts for the Apprentices, the 'M' Division, RE-RW, Tele-Data, ADM, and the Expeditors. I also want to acknowledge our President Tom Cleary, and the staff, including Senior Assistant Business Manager Christopher Erikson Jr., Assistant Business Manager Joe Santigate, Business Representative Cliff Tuohy, and our attorneys Richard Brook and Thomas Erikson for all of their hard work on the 'A' Agreement. This was no easy task. There were needs and wants, and while we didn’t get everything we asked for, we got everything we needed to get. The employers were satisfied as well, and both parties are poised to move forward as our work opportunity continues to improve.
