FY2003 Negotiations

IAFF FY2003 Contract Negotiations

Conclusion

July 17, 2002 - After finishing a three-shift ballot-box vote on acceptance or rejection of the proposed contract changes for FY03, it was decided to accept the agreed upon changes this year. 98% of those voting have accepted these changes with 2% rejecting them. The vote passes. 

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Seventh Meeting

July 10, 2002
Part II - The IAFF and the City of Norman have agreed on proposed changes to the FY03 Contract. The IAFF will now conduct a Union-wide vote to either accept these changes or renew negotiations once again. The proposed changes are as follows:

City/IAFF Collective Bargaining
FY03

1. Both parties agree to withdraw all offers and counteroffers as specified herein.

2. The City agrees to implement a 4.5% across-the-board increase for members of the IAFF bargaining unit effective July 1, 2002.

3. The City agrees to increase the longevity rate in Article 31 from "$6 per month" to "$8 per month".

4. The IAFF agrees to consider resolved the following grievances: 

1. Grievance concerning deviations in a statement of benefits in a health and dental insurance booklet published within the last few months. The IAFF understands no changes in benefits were intended and agrees to forgo a request for arbitration on this issue as long as no changes in benefits are implemented during the contract year.

2. Grievance concerning use of insurance fund monies to pay consultants to assist in managing the City's insurance plan--The IAFF will drop the grievance.

3. Grievance concerning City Manager's decision to discontinue meetings of an Insurance Committee with Union representatives--The IAFF will drop the grievance.

5. Right to Work issue: Both parties agree to accept the IAFF's proposal on Article 10 that was presented 4/17/02 with the following language added as the bottom paragraph to Section 1: 

"The parties agree that the City will deduct Union dues or fair share fees only for employees who have voluntarily signed 'Authorization for Payroll Deduction' forms. The parties further agree that it is not a condition of employment for employees to be Union members or for employees to pay Union dues."

6. The new position of EMS Coordinator will be recognized as a member of the IAFF Bargaining Unit and the pay scale agreed upon in a prior consultation will be added to Appendix A of the Contract.

July 9, 2002
Part I - This meeting is, for all practical purposes, part 1 of 2 as the Negotiating Team is close to a possible tentative agreement that could be taken to the IAFF membership for a ratification vote very soon. Stay tuned in the next few days for further developments regarding the latest offer being seriously explored by the City of Norman via the City Manager.

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Sixth Meeting

May 28, 2002
The IAFF responded to the City of Norman's request to add the "Random Drug Testing" language to the contract with eagerness in adding more to not only curb possible future drug and alcohol problems in the Fire Department but to allow the members and the City to recognize it's employees risk and potential current hazardous status in contracting blood born diseases while doing their job in conjunction with a "wellness program". The City of Norman felt this was to be too costly at first glance, but said it needed time to review the response before committing further.

Health Insurance seems to be another item the City of Norman wishes to discuss further. But, while the IAFF is always welcoming constructive reasoning behind the recent requests for additional changes and added costs to the members of the IAFF 2067, it still remains to be seen the evidence and justification behind those requests asked for by the City in terms of Health Insurance. So, the IAFF is currently not in a position to address this issue further in this current climate of missing numerical factors supporting its defense.

The next meeting is scheduled for June 21, 2002 at 2:00 p.m. in the Building "C" Conference room.

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Fifth Meeting

May 2, 2002
Arriving typically midway in terms of recent classifications of negotiation sessions the City of Norman and the IAFF Local 2067 appear to have hit its first difficult hurdle in the race to ratify the FY2003 contract. What appeared in early meetings to be a cordial, "work as a team" environment has just now taken on a more distasteful setting in terms of the City of Norman not only NOT wanting to make the standard additional allowances to its Firefighters this year, but rather is willing to reduce in net earnings the combined gross value of its total compensation package. 

This equates to the City of Norman desiring to lower the current Health Benefit from the 100% for Single coverage to a "more equitable cost sharing" percentage of 75%. Thus, making the contribution to the Health Insurance Fund by employees $89.50 per month and those with dependent coverage to $199.19.

The Union at this time feels, in terms of incentive or benefit to do so, unlikely to consider any such scenario to accept at this time. Mathematically, in addition to financially, the bargaining unit feels there is no better "equitable cost sharing" method than a percentage. Hence, since the percentages have been set since 1984 the same value to the insurance plan has no more or less weight to one side verses the other today than it had since Article #26 was accepted.

[~~It's also good to let members know that this request could not have come at a better time if it was to arrive at all. We will be having a Union Meeting this month and will obviously discuss this issue in its entirety. Please show up at this meeting as the direction that membership would like the negotiating team to head will be discussed AND decided during this meeting. There are no boundaries with this topic. All bets are off as to whether we decided to accept such a discomforting offer or to withdrawal from the City's Insurance Plan altogether decided on an offer anywhere in between.~~]

The City of Norman also submitted a wage survey that is claimed to support the theory that a 1.6% across the board wage increase is justifiable. Its full scope was to show a -2.45% differential in this wage survey. 

With all this said, the City would like to reassure the members of the International Association of Firefighters-Local 2067 that they are not asking for a reduction in wages by 2.45%. However, let it also be stated that the IAFF Local 2067 wishes to point to the fact that the inference to do just that is their desire. Furthermore, let it be also stated that Norman's Firefighters are currently insulted by these current developments but will continue to work through the process in "good faith", make reasonable requests, and overcome.

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Fourth Meeting

April 17, 2002
Today's meeting was primarily used to negotiate some minor issues in order to get those closer to being finalized in helping to deal with more important topics such as wages, 'sick-leave-buy-back', and rank restructure.

The City of Norman and the IAFF signed off on the "Duration of Agreement" and promised to close out the "ground rules" situation next meeting.

The IAFF:

• The IAFF Countered the cities desire to rephrase Article #10, "Check-Off of Dues" to eliminate the wording that referred to "Fair Share Fee" in the contract. The Union agreed that the word "required" should be removed as it no longer, and quite frankly never was, is the case since "Right-to-work-for-Less" was passed by Oklahoma voters. But, beyond that, the IAFF sees no need to eliminate "Fair Share Fee's" since it still applies for those people that require to contribute to the cause of representation, yet does not want to become a member of the Union.

• The IAFF is working on a counter proposal that it hopes will include the cities request for Drug & Alcohol Testing along with other tests that the Union Membership would feel is as important to Firefighter and Public safety as D & A Testing. The bargaining unit will hold a Union Meeting in May and discuss this topic fully with the entire group before proceeding further.

• The IAFF asked the city to consider rolling over any Tuition Assistance shortfalls from one year to the next in helping to curb the problem of monies from the new years budget to start fresh with the total amount of $6000.00 instead of using some of current year money to reimburse members from the previous year.

• The IAFF also requested that the Holiday's stated in Article #18 be returned to their original representation, i.e. Christmas Eve, Christmas, and Good Friday, instead of the Politically correct wording that now represents these exact holidays. In helping to keep with the desire that was the intent when this was first changed, we requested that an Addendum to this Article be placed in the back section of the contract detailing these holiday's as they now read for those that take exception to the religious connotations that the holiday actually is in place to celebrate. (Yeah, I know...this makes no sense to ME either.)

• The IAFF also asked the City to consider freezing merit dates at the current placement of all Fire personnel with any new-hires maintaining the date in which they hired as their permanent merit date. This would thereby eliminate the loss of wages to those that fall behind those currently occupying their positions a result of stepping out of class after a promotion to another class.

• The IAFF also discussed briefly the desire to implement a Rank Restructure as has been discussed for several years.

The City of Norman:

• The City requested a written proposal on the Unions counter for Drug and Alcohol Testing. The IAFF is currently working on this issue.

• The City mentioned that any plans to restructure the Health Insurance this year might be limited to adjusting the amount of money that the "Single People" pay.

The next meeting is scheduled for May 2, 2002 at the City Offices at 1:30 p.m.

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Third Meeting

(Note: The IAFF negotiations team will be meeting together (prior to the April 17th meeting) on the 16th at 2:30 p.m. in the union office.)

April 5, 2002
Today marked the beginning of real negotiations between the City of Norman and the International Association of Firefighters - Local 2067.

The City began the meeting by handing over some of the budget materials that were asked for in the prior meeting.

The City also slid across the table four possible changes they would like to see made to our current contract. They involved the following:

• ARTICLE 10, Check-Off of Dues: Made changes to the language involving the wording referring to a "required fair-share fee" as a condition of employment.

• ARTICLE 25, Wages: Offered, as an initial proposal, a 1.6% wage increase, across the board.

• ARTICLE 36, Duration of Agreement: Changes made to the contract in terms of the duration of agreement dates.

• NEW ARTICLE 37, Drug and Alcohol Testing: The city submitted a lengthy outline of a possible Drug Testing Plan. No cost was evaluated as of this time by the city for this project.

Also submitted in oral form by the city were changes they are asking in relation to the Health Care Plan. The City had three possible submissions to a perceived problem that the IAFF, to date, has yet to be made aware of. They include such ideas as:

• Higher Premiums (for the employee ONLY by the way) with some benefits being reduced or removed.

• Higher deductibles and removal of previously agreed to benefits in the plan.

• A possible change in the scope of the plan by converting to a Catastrophic Health Plan with supremely high deductibles "allowing for retired members to more affordably keep the health insurance they have with they leave the city".

• In addition to those listed above, the city would also like to increase the percentage the employee is paying into the plan. Currently, the single employee is 100% covered; the dependents are 80% covered.

The IAFF will review these proposals and respond next meeting.

The IAFF also talked briefly about Sick-Leave Buy Back and asked the city to respond to this issue next meeting if they could. The IAFF also made a brief counter proposal to the submitted 1.6% by the City of 8%. The IAFF used "projected wage survey data" as did the City of Norman in arriving at this figure. No evidence was given by either side for these figures.

The next meeting will be held on April 17, 2002 at 2:30 p.m. in Building "C" at City Hall.

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Second Meeting

(Note: The IAFF negotiations team will be meeting together on April 4th at 6:00 p.m. in the Union Conference Center.)

March 15, 2002
Beginning negotiations at a slower than normal pace provided both sides to present a short description of the items in which both sides would like to discuss in further detail throughout this annual negotiations period. 

The IAFF began this session in greater detail in one item dealing with 'Sick-Leave Buy-Back'. Under the current contract with the city of Norman, the IAFF membership, upon retirement, would be allowed to sell back not more than 1440 hours of earned, saved, and thereby unused sick leave at a rate of 2 for 1. Hence, the total full hour payback upon separation from city employment is not more than 720 total hours at the current rate of hourly wage at the time of retirement. Both sides recognize there are personnel who leave Norman's charge with many times more than those 720 hours and it is the IAFFs recommendation and request that the City of Norman increase its buyout money for those hours earned, yet not used to help offset the unbalance in weighing sick-leave as an item in "total compensation" whereby the City of Norman uses each and every hour accumulated throughout the year as a dollar figure in cost analysis against same/like cities in its survey information. More easily said, the IAFF feels this request to be a monetarily equitable solution.

The City of Norman choose to respond in greater detail to this request later in negotiations.

The City of Norman also requests to use next meeting as a format to bring its issues to light.

The  next scheduled negotiations session between the City of Norman and the IAFF Local 2067 will be held Friday, April 5, 2002 at 1:30 p.m. at Building-C.

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Ground Rules Meeting

March 1, 2002
The first meeting was met with little fan-fair as both sides discussed the items that each would like to bring to the table for discussion throughout negotiations this year. They dealt with wages, health insurance, sick leave, rank restructuring, and others.

The  next scheduled negotiations session between the City of Norman and the IAFF Local 2067 will be held Friday, March 15, 2002 at 9:00 a.m.