Unit Bargaining: Detailed Explanation

Local 768 has been preparing for Unit Bargaining over the past year, starting with a training program in the Summer of 2023 (see an outline here), our first Bargaining Unit meetings in August, where we began soliciting bargaining demands (continuing through January) and then establishing our Bargaining Committees. This page is intended to continue that process by providing more detail about how the money available for this process is calculated.

Structure of our contracts

First, we have to review the structure of our union contracts: they are actually a combination of three main agreements (all available here):

• Citywide Contract: Addresses general working conditions and other non-wage matters such as holidays, time and leave accruals, eligibility for health insurance coverage and personnel practices. While it doesn't detail your base wage, it does detail how you earn overtime, shift differentials and holiday pay.
• Economic Contract: Determines the overall general wage increases for the majority of DC 37 members. It also includes a specific amount of money available for Unit Bargaining
• Unit Contracts: Wages, differentials and working conditions for designated groups of workers called “bargaining units”. Each unit contract defines items unique to the titles in the unit

DC37's Citywide Contract hasn't changed much over the past 20 years, but the Economic Contract is the primary focus of negotiations every few years. Our current Economic Contract was ratified in March 2023, and covers the period of time from May 26, 2021 to November 6, 2026. In addition to the annual raises to base pay (mostly 3% each year), this agreement also sets aside money for Unit Bargaining, found in Section 7:

Additional Compensation Funds

Effective May 26, 2023, or the applicable date of the Successor Separate Unit Agreement, each bargaining unit shall have available funds not to exceed 0.50% to purchase recurring benefits, mutually agreed to by the parties. The funds shall be based on the December 31, 2020 payroll, including spinoffs and pensions.

Like most DC37 members, all of our members in Local 768 are assigned to Bargaining Units based on your title:

In addition to these Additional Compensation Funds that will be allocated through Unit Bargaining, this contract also includes another amount of money allocated to an "Equity Panel" in the amount of 1% of total pay:

Equity Panel

The parties agree to form an equity panel consisting of one member appointed by the union [DC37], one member appointed by the City and one neutral member selected by mutual agreement of the parties.

The panel shall address employees/titles where there is demonstrable evidence of significant recruitment or retention issues and/or compelling evidence of significant changes in job duties or qualifications.

The cost of the equity panel shall be 1%, which shall be available on May 26, 2023. The funds available shall be based on the December 31, 2020 payroll, including spinoffs and pensions.

Unit bargaining process

Once the Economic Contracts are ratified, DC37's negotiators begin planning a process for Unit Bargaining. Each unit will bargain separately, including the Local Presidents representing members within that unit and sometimes a Bargaining Committee of members from that Local as well.

The amount of money was defined by the Economic Contract: "Each bargaining unit shall have available ... 0.50% ... based on the December 31, 2020 payroll". In other words, 0.50% of the amount of money that the City paid out to all of the members within a given Bargaining Unit. The actual dollar-amount will therefore depend on both the number of workers in a Bargaining Unit and their total pay. Here is how that breaks down for the three Bargaining Units that Local 768 members are in:

In addition to the economic demands that clearly cost the City money (see examples from prior rounds of bargaining below), non-economic demands can also be discussed. However, the City is often not required to bargain over non-economic demands, but it can if their leaders wish to do so.

In Local 768, our Bargaining Committees have pulled together the proposals submitted by our members, and developed bargaining surveys for each Unit (starting with Health Services and Social Services) to see what the priorities of the membership are. Once those results are analyzed, the committees will communicate that back to the membership, and when DC37 is ready, the Local will be advocating for these same priorities that you have identified in the formal bargaining process. At the same time, our Bargaining Committees will be developing plans for campaigns to advocate for our top priorities. Like the bargaining survey, we want to engage a majority of our members in these campaigns as well.

Even though the money available in the Unit Bargaining process is limited & we may not win all our demands, there are two main reasons we want to build more member involvement in this process:

1. Demonstrating strong support for clear, compelling priorities will help us prepare for subsequent negotiations (such as the Equity Panel process)
2. We hope to pressure the City to seriously negotiate the non-economic changes to our unit contracts that are important to us

Prior rounds of unit bargaining: What was the result?

The Economic Contract covering the period from 2017 - 2021 included an Additional Compensation Fund of 0.2% to be allocated through Unit Bargaining, which was finalized in Apr 2021. Here are the highlights that applied to Local 768 members:

• Health Services 2021 Additional Compensation Fund Agreement
  • Increased the amount of 1st year Recurring Increment Payments (RIP) for the entire bargaining unit to $554 / yr (up from $480) after completing 1 yr
  • Increased Uniform Allowance for Dental Asst/Dental Hygienist to $500 (up from $282)
  • Add Creative Arts Therapist Occupational Group’s Assignment Differential for DOC/Correctional Health ($2,439 / yr)
  • Add Admin Public Health Sanitarian to RIP
  • Add Admin Public health Sanitarian to APHS3 Longevity Differential
• Social Services 2021 Additional Compensation Fund Agreement
  • Increase the amount of the 10-year Recurring Increment Payment (RIP) for entire bargaining unit to $603 / yr (up from $521) after completing 10 yrs
  • Increase the employer contribution to the DC37 Annuity Plan to $794 / yr (up from $724) for all bargaining unit members
• Blue Collar 2020 Additional Compensation Fund Agreement
  • Created new Recurring Increment Payment of $167 for all non-supervisory titles after completing 5 yrs
  • Created new Recurring Increment Payment of $297 for all supervisory titles after completing 5 yrs

Economic Contract covered the period from 2010 - 2017 included an Additional Compensation Fund of 0.52% to be allocated through Unit Bargaining, which were finalized in Aug 2017. Here are the highlights that applied to Local 768 members:

• Health Services 2017 Additional Compensation Fund
  • Creating Assignment Differential of $600 / yr for Public Health Sanitarians and Associate Public Health Sanitarians who are regularly assigned field work and must carry and store work equipment
  • Added Creative Arts Therapists to the list of titles eligible for Recurring Increment Payments (Additional $480 after completing 1 yr, then $154 for each year thereafter up to 20 yrs)
  • A general wage increase of 0.3022%
• Social Services 2017 Additional Compensation Fund
  • Increase the employer contribution to the DC37 Annuity Plan to $724 / yr (up from $684) for all bargaining unit members
  • Created a Recurring Increment Payment of $500 for all bargaining unit members after completing 10 years of service
• Blue Collar 2017 Additional Compensation Fund
  • Added additional Recurring Increment Payments of $794 for all non-supervisory titles ($424 for supervisory titles) after completing 15 yrs of service