Two more unions reached tentative labor-contract deals Wednesday with Miami-Dade County, Mayor Carlos Gimenez’s administration said.
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1542, which represents aviation employees, and AFSCME Local 3292, which represents solid-waste workers, must now put the agreements to a membership vote once the contracts are finalized.
The deals are similar to the one the county announced Tuesday with a union that represents professional and supervisory workers: Miami-Dade would drop its request to extend workers’ benefit concessions, and commit to using any property-tax revenues in excess of existing projections to pay for a cost-of-living salary increase in 2017. The unions would accept redesigned healthcare coverage that would require workers to choose between a cheaper but more restrictive plan or existing plans that would be more expensive.
“I very much appreciate the willingness of the leadership of both Local 1542 and Local 3292 to sit down with my administration in order to craft responsible solutions to our budgetary challenges,” Gimenez said in a statement.
Six more collective-bargaining units have yet to sign off on — or in some cases, even sit down to begin discussing — new, three-year county contracts. Public hearings begin next week on Miami-Dade’s 2014-15 budget, which commissioners will have to approve by the end of September.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/08/27/4312679/miami-dade-reaches-tentative-contract.html