CWA 1180 - Calendar

Contract Deal at Human Rights First

June 2007

After nine bargaining sessions over five weeks, Local 1180 members at Human Rights First reached a 35-month agreement on June 1, which was ratified in a 35-0 vote, with three not voting, on June 8.

The deal covers the period June 1, 2007, through April 30, 2010, and includes annual increases to wages and base pay rates of 4 percent, 3.75 percent, and 3.75 percent; new longevity raises of $1,000 after three years, an additional $1,000 after five years, and $1,750 after 10 years; an accelerated schedule for vesting in the retirement plan; the right to negotiate on any proposed health plan changes; extended time limits for filing a grievance; and more transparency on adding newly created positions to the bargaining unit—including the right to grieve the designation of any position as non-union.

In explaining the tentative agreement to members of the unit, negotiator John Stompor, a senior associate at Human Rights First, said, "What made our jobs as negotiators much easier were the solidarity actions you took part in—wearing union buttons, putting up signs at your cubicles, attending solidarity lunches, talking with your supervisors—all of that tremendously affected our job at the table and improved the situation for all of us." The other members of the bargaining team were Avi Cover, senior counsel; Matt Easton, senior associate; Niamh Gibbons, program assistant; Alex Wisotsky, staff attorney; and Local 1180 second vice-president Bill Henning.

“We sent five rookie members to the bargaining table, but you wouldn’t have known it,” says Henning. “They did a hell of a job.”

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