-3/12/26
Tuesday March 10, the A&R Representative Assembly voted to accept and recommend that our Contract Tentative Agreement go for a membership vote...so the next step is a member vote on our contract!
This will be an online vote and your voting credentials will be sent to the email we have on file for you.
The voting will open on March 18th at 12:01 AM and close on March 24th at 11:59PM.
Today, A&R mailed out a postcard to all members announcing the membership vote and indicates the email address we have on file for you;
- This is the home email address we plan to use for your voting credentials...
- Review the email address and if that email address is acceptable, then you do not need to do anything further. Your voting credentials will be emailed to you on March 17th (St. Patrick's Day!).
- If you wish to change (or add) your home email address, follow the QR code on the card or follow this link to update your email address (prior to March 17, please).
- Do not supply us with a State email address, we will not send voting credentials to a State email.
Below are the proposed contract changes that we are recommending to the membership.
Clarity for the newer members, there are two types of wage increaseses: General Wage Increases (GWI) and then there are Annual Increments (Steps).
The GWI typically occurs on/about July 1 and means that EVERYONE gets a wage increase equal to the bargained percentage (in this contract, the percentage is 2.5% each year for 2025, 2026, and 2027). So on/about July 1 everyone's hourly rate will increase by 2.5% for each of those years.
The Steps only occur if you receive a good service rating in September, then you will move up a Step within your salary grade (e.g. move from Step 4 to Step 5). These Steps are applied on/about January 1 of each year. Each salary grade only has 9 steps, once you get to Step 9, you won't receive an Annual Increment (this when you receive the Top Step Payment instead).
This contract did not have a wage agreement in place back in 2025, so we did not receive a GWI in July 2025 and we did not receive a Step in January 2026...however, if this contract passes it will retroactively change the wages and result in back pay. So retroactive to July 1, 2025, everyone's salary will be increased by 2.5% and you will get paid the difference between what you actually were paid and what the adjusted pay is based on the 2.5% GWI. Then, on December 26, 2025, if you qualified for a Step (which you did NOT get b/c we didn't have a contract) you will now get that Step increase. So again, your salary will be retroactively adjusted to account for the Step increase and you will be paid the difference between what you should have been paid with the Step increase versus what they actually paid you...and...your salary (with the 2.5% GWI and the Step increase) will be your new salary going forward. Then on June 26, 2026, everyone will get another 2.5% GWI.
For those who have been around long enough that they no longer get steps, you all know that you will receive the retro-active pay for your December 2025 TopStepPayment.
We do not have any idea of how soon the retro-pay would be made, we need to focus on the membership vote first and then getting this passed by the State House and Senate.