Tag: union

Bloomington budget adopted, AFSCME workers get same pay (for now) as last year

Bloomington city council (Oct. 12, 2022)
Bloomington mayor John Hamilton (Oct. 12, 2022).
AFSCME member addresses Bloomington city council (Oct. 12, 2022)
AFSCME members in Bloomington city council chambers (Oct. 12, 2022)
AFSCME Local 2487 president Bradley Rushton addresses Bloomington city council (Oct. 12, 2022)

On unanimous votes taken on Wednesday night, Bloomington’s city council adopted the six separate ordinances that make up the 2023 budget.

That meant the council chose not to confront Bloomington mayor John Hamilton’s administration in the same way it did last year, when it postponed a vote on the next year’s budget until late October.

Based on their deliberations in late September this year, indications had been that a delay similar to last year’s might have been in the works, especially on the ordinance that sets AFSCME member pay.

Just one councilmember, Jim Sims, had expressed support for that ordinance during late September deliberations. The straw poll results on that occasion showed five councilmembers voting no and three abstaining.

But on Wednesday, the salary ordinance that sets AFSCME pay for 2023 was adopted on a unanimous vote, with the same pay schedule for those workers as for 2022. When the current ongoing collective bargaining negotiations conclude with an agreement, that salary ordinance is supposed to be amended to reflect a pay increase.

City council chambers were filled on Wednesday night with more than 50 AFSCME members who pled with the council to support them in their ongoing contract negotiations. Their current four-year contract expires at the end of the year. Continue reading “Bloomington budget adopted, AFSCME workers get same pay (for now) as last year” →

Striking IU grad student instructors pedal a lap through Bloomington’s downtown

Around 12:45 p.m. on Friday, about 60 bicyclists pedaled north on Walnut Street past the Monroe County courthouse with printed signs affixed to their machines that said, “ON STRIKE For Union Recognition.”

The chanted slogans like “What do we want? Union! When do we want it? Now!”

They were members of the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition – United Electrical Workers (IGWC). The members of the IGWC teach classes to undergraduates at Indiana University.

The group voted on Tuesday to continue their strike which started last week. The vote tally to continue the strike was 967 to 27, or 97.3 percent in favor, according to organizers.

Members of the IGWC voted last week to begin the strike, also with better than 97 percent in favor.

The action by the IGWC is considered by the university’s administration to be just a “work stoppage” and not a “strike” by a union.

The university administration’s refusal to recognize the IGWC as a union is the central grievance of the graduate student instructors. Continue reading “Striking IU grad student instructors pedal a lap through Bloomington’s downtown” →

IU graduate student instructors now on strike for union recognition, next vote on Tuesday

On Friday morning, at Sample Gates, on the east end of Kirkwood Avenue, around 100 Indiana University graduate student instructors set up a picket with printed signs that said, “ON STRIKE For Union Recognition.”

The action by the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition – United Electrical Workers (IGWC) is considered by the university’s administration to be just a “work stoppage” and not a “strike” by a union.

The university administration’s refusal to recognize the IGWC as a union is the central grievance of the graduate student instructors.

The strike, which started Wednesday, was authorized by a vote of the Indiana Graduate Workers Coalition – United Electrical Workers by a tally of 1,008 to 23 (97.8 in favor), according to union organizers.

The job title of graduate student instructors within the university’s employment system is student academic appointee (SAA). The IGWC wants the university’s administration to recognize the group as the union representing all SSAs as provided under Indiana Code.

The kind of issues the IGWC wants to be able to negotiate with the administration as a collective bargaining unit include: elimination of various fees; compensation; benefits; a formal grievance procedure; and equity for international students who are SAAs. Continue reading “IU graduate student instructors now on strike for union recognition, next vote on Tuesday” →

Careers, not jobs: Bloomington Transit GM describes new bus driver contract

BT monthly ridership statistics.
BT board chair Nancy Obermeyer receives AFSME ratified letter from union president Jeff Cisneros.
BT board chair Nancy Obermeyer.
BT general manager John Connell.

On Tuesday night, Bloomington Transit’s five-member board approved a new four-year collective bargaining agreement with AFSCME Local 613, the bus drivers union.

Under the new contract, for full-time fixed-route bus drivers in their third year of service, the hourly wage will increase from $19.69 now to $21.19 in January 2022. That’s a 7.6-percent increase.

By the fourth year of the contract, those drivers will be paid $25.69 an hour, which is a 30.5-percent increase over their current wage.

New BT general manager John Connell, who took over from retiring Lew May at the start of the month, told the board, “One of the goals that we set out was to establish an increase in pay and benefits where we could be in a position to offer careers, not jobs. And I think this contract does that.”

Connell continued, “It’s a four-year term. And in the fourth year, our wages will be very competitive.”

He added, “We’re hoping to see some improvements in our recruiting efforts.” Due to a driver shortage, BT is currently making just about 70 percent of the runs that it would normally make this time of year, Connell said at Tuesday’s board meeting. Continue reading “Careers, not jobs: Bloomington Transit GM describes new bus driver contract” →