Aug. 11, 2006–The ongoing battle between the government and local supervisors represented by the United Steelworkers of America (USW) came to an end Thursday, as Karen M. Andrews, chief negotiator for the Office of Collective Bargaining (OCB), announced that the two entities had finally come to a "tentative" agreement regarding wage increases.
However, Andrews said the details of the agreement will be kept under wraps until it has been ratified by the union members and approved by Gov. Charles W. Turnbull.
While negotiations between the government and its supervisors have been ongoing since last December, the issue of developing a new collective bargaining agreement for the union has remained unresolved for at least the past four years–after the supervisors, once represented by the American Maritime Association (AMO), elected USW to represent them.
This decision resulted in a lawsuit filed against the union by the Office of Collective Bargaining, which challenged USW's representation of the supervisors. At a Senate hearing held last month, Andrews briefly explained the reasons behind the suit, saying, "USW already represents subordinate employees in the central government's agencies and departments. We thought it would be a conflict of interest to have the same union representing the supervisors as well."
However, supervisors have claimed that Andrews initially refused to come to the table to develop a contract, and then intentionally filed a suit against the group to further stall negotiations. The case had been embroiled in controversy until last year, when Andrews announced that she would be withdrawing the case on appeal in District Court in order to begin negotiations with the supervisors–who have been working without a collective bargaining agreement since 1999.
At a recent Senate hearing held on July 18, Andrews said she would continue the negotiation process until an agreement had been executed. At the time, she said that OCB would be coming back to the Legislature "this fiscal year," with a $4 million request to fund wage increases for the supervisors.
In Thursday's release from her office, Andrews said the "tentative" package covers salary increases for the supervisors through 2008.
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