Campus maintenance workers are working under a new contract this week after approving a three-year agreement with the University last Friday. With little dissent, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 465 compromised with the administration on most issues hours before their previous contract was set to expire.
The agreement includes wage increases of 3.5, 3.25 and 3 percent over the next three years, less than what workers requested but still acceptable, said Henry Loftis, union spokesperson and negotiating committee member.
"We still don't agree with parts of it, but we fought tooth and nail to get over 3 percent for each year of the contract," said Loftis, who endorsed the final agreement. "We really had to fight. This was a struggle."
Members approved the proposal by a margin of 60 to 10, Loftis estimated.
Although the union and the University agreed to several benefit increases--including more training and a day off for community service--wages have dominated negotiations since they began in mid-April.
Maintenance workers had sought to reach parity with their counterparts at Duke Hospital, who average about $2 more per hour and work under an incentive-based system. Wages for Local 465 workers are based on skill and seniority.
A merit system may still be in the works, said John Burness, Duke's senior vice president for public affairs and government relations. "There will be, as I understand it, discussions over the next year to see if agreement can be reached in the long term on systems similar to those in the Medical Center," he said.
In general, however, Burness expressed satisfaction with the outcome of the negotiations. "It is the nature of labor negotiations that they tend to go down to the last minute, almost invariably," he said. "But in the end both sides found a way to reach an agreement that would serve the needs of everyone. I don't think either side ever wants to start thinking about strikes."
Neither party speculated on what would have happened if the proposal had not passed, but Loftis had said earlier that extended negotiations with a moderator would have been likely.
Aside from pay increases, the union sought to secure as many as 36 hours of paid community service each year. Such benefits became unrealistic, Loftis said, when University negotiators introduced concerns about attendance and supervision.
Burness said paid community service is also complicated by the need to have Medical Center employees on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
"We've never really been able to work out a consistent University policy on community service days because you can't just do it for the campus workers," he said.
Before holding the vote, members of the union's negotiating committee addressed the workers on a range of issues. Each endorsed the proposal, while citing a need for greater unity and participation of all members.
"We might have gotten a little more if everyone showed support," said committee member Ronnie Wilkerson. "We need to have one union with everyone involved if we ever want to stand up to them." Of the approximately 120 members in the local, just over half attended the vote and about 50 gathered for a meeting May 21.
Loftis added, however, that the experience did improve communication with the administration. "It's gotten to the point where, when we're working, they're not showing us any respect. We talked about that, and I think they heard us," Loftis said.
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