CWA 1180 - Calendar

Javitz workers near deal

April 2006

AFTER ALMOST two years of bargaining, cleaning and set up supervisors at
the Jacob Javits Convention Center reached a tentative contract agreement on March 1. According to Local 1180 vice-president Bill Henning, who led the bargaining team, management had refused to put any raise at all on the table until the final hour.

The four-year agreement, covering April 1, 2004 through March 31, 2008, raises hourly wages by $1.97 over four years, or approximately 9 percent. That includes no increase in 2004, 2.29 percent in 2005, and 2.95 percent for each of the final two years of the contract. But the total package adds up to a 16.4 percent increase, because the agreement keeps the workers’ health insurance completely employer-paid, includes a modest hike in Javits contributions to the welfare fund, and brings Javits workers into the Local 1180 Members’ Annuity Fund—a supplemental retirement fund—with Javits contributing 25 cents into the fund for every hour worked. The contract also allows workers to combine all of their accrued sick leave, personal leave, and vacation days into a single bank and to roll them over into subsequent years.

“We got a plus this year with an annuity fund we never had, and we got our combined time,” says Rosa Cancel, who participated in the bargaining process. “I’m unhappy about the year ’04, but otherwise everything looks great.” Shop stewards Augie Gonzales and Louis Torres, as well as members Kingsley Boakye and James Garret, also took part in negotiations over the course of two years.

As Javits workers were poised to ratify the contract in early April, management suddenly asked to institute a drug and alcohol substance abuse
policy. “We told management they can’t shake hands, say we have an agreement, and after the fact say we have to add this policy to the contract,”
Henning says. “We believe a drug and alcohol policy is a required subject of bargaining. Some of the items will require further talks before we agree to implementation.”

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