Bargaining Update 5/10: Company makes pay counter proposal

The company submitted their first wage proposal, which outlined a 3% raise across the board for all hires effective the first full pay period upon ratification of the contract. This proposal also included a 2% raise for the second and third years of the three-year contract period as well as new wage scales that would raise the minimum wages of some of our lowest paid employees.

While their initial wage proposal was promising, one issue we’re still facing is that their proposed wage scales are still wildly out of date and don’t provide the pay equity or transparency we’re craving. The majority of employees are paid above their proposed scales so the incremental wages don’t outline what an employee may expect to be paid depending on years on the job. The company’s proposed across-the-board raises are also short of those we proposed to keep up with inflation.

Good news: We fought hard on getting health insurance benefits closer to an employee’s start date and we got big wins with the company agreeing to a tentative agreement to our insured and self-insured benefits proposals, meaning that insurance benefits will start within a month of an employee’s start date. We also got tentative agreements from the company on the following: 

• Officially adding Juneteenth to the paid time off holidays list

• Removing doctor examination language in the sick leave proposal

• And getting rid of the requirement that employees must take at least two weeks of vacation time in a row and that any more or less consecutive time must be agreed upon.

We’ve agreed to a tentative agreement on the company’s byline counter, which stated that an employee may change their professional byline to align with name changes including marriage, divorce, separation and gender affirmation. The byline proposal, especially language around gender affirmation, was important to us since we want to foster an inclusive environment for all employees. 

We’ve also submitted counters to the company’s probationary period proposal and their drone policy counters. Our biggest priority with the probationary period proposal is that employees shouldn’t be surprised by the probation period and employees should have clear notice about any performance concerns before the probationary period is over. Our proposal states that employees will get written notice about the probationary period when hired, and any performance issues that may result in termination must be received in writing at least four weeks before the end of the probation period.

Meanwhile, our drone proposal counter included clear indemnification language (that the company will cover and protect employees if a mistake happens); compensation ($2,000 for all drone pilots who maintain credentials); and clearer safety protocols (we recommended that the company develop a drone handbook, pilots can abort a flight at any time for any reason and that pilots shall not suffer disciplinary action if they cannot fly due to mental or physical inability).

While some aspects of today were encouraging, we still have a long hard fight ahead of us.