Members of the Service Employees International Union Local 560 approved a two-year contract on Friday that "protects existing bargaining union members from layoffs during the term of the contract," according to Kevin O'Leary, associate general counsel for the College, who helped lead negotiations between the College and the union. The College will also continue to pay for the health insurance plans of unionized employees who elect single coverage under the contract, O'Leary said.
Approximately 55 percent of SEIU 560 members voted on the College's proposed contract, according to Earl Sweet, president of SEIU Local 560. Of the voting members, 35 voted against the new contract while 175 approved of the terms.
In a survey of SEIU 560 members, employees said that the two most important aspects of the agreement were job protection and low health care costs, according to Sweet.
Sweet said that the College initially claimed during negotiations that no College employees would "get a raise this year or next year." Once Sweet approved an agreement to be voted upon by union members, however, the College informed Sweet that non-unionized employees would receive a 1 percent salary increase, he said.
"They told us they weren't going to give any wage increases, then all of a sudden when we agreed to take this to a vote we found out that they were going to give wage increases to non-union [employees]," Sweet said.
The increase in wage and salary rates for non-unionized employees will not go into effect until Oct. 1, although employees will receive supplemental payment that will be equivalent to a similar increase from July through September, The Dartmouth previously reported. Union members who voted against the proposed contract primarily objected to the absence of a wage increase for unionized employees, Sweet said, adding that many union members were "angered" by the misleading information. Sweet questioned the transparency of the process and said that the College had adopted the attitudes of a "big business."
"I've been here for over 30 years and I've never seen anything like this," he said.
O'Leary declined to respond to Sweet's specific charges.
"The negotiation process is a back-and-forth, and each side takes positions on the issues that are important to them," O'Leary said. "The College did what it could to respond to the issues that the union raised at the bargaining table."
Sweet added that the College's increase of parking costs which was implemented in July should have also been considered in negotiations because of the additional cost to employees. The union has filed a grievance about the increase since it was not negotiated, Sweet said.
Sweet also said the agreement that the union reached with the College was favorable to the one reached with non-unionized workers.
"That 1 percent increase is a slap in the face [to non-unionized employees]," Sweet said. "They have to pay a lot more for their [health insurance] coverage [and] parking. That 1 percent doesn't mean anything."
Senior Vice President Steven Kadish said that the benefits granted to non-unionized employees are "financially equivalent" to those offered to unionized employees in an Aug. 2 interview with The Dartmouth.
"We've been very interested in the fair treatment of all our employees, and the union pushed to get some help for health insurance," Kadish said. "It was very important to try to create an equitable situation for both [unionized and non-unionized employees]."
