RACINE — Firefighters and police officers would contribute to their state pensions and forego guaranteed wage increases under tentative union contracts backed 3-0 Tuesday by the Finance and Personnel Committee.
Under the three-year agreements — negotiated last week during 11th-hour meetings — all firefighters and police officers would start contributing to their Wisconsin Retirement System accounts starting next year.
The officers and firefighters would not get any wage increases in 2015 in exchange for those contributions, but in 2016 and 2017 they would have the right to ask the city for raises through a wage reopener provision.
The wage reopener provision would essentially require the city and whatever union is asking for a wage increase to go back to the bargaining table, where they would only be able to negotiate wages for the year in question, explained Deputy City Attorney Scott Letteney.
Each union looking for a wage increase would have to come up with proposed cost savings that could be used to come up with the funds to provide for an across-the-board raise, Letteney said Tuesday.
“The burden is at least in part on them to actually find places where savings can be found that the administration can agree to,” he said. “If the parties don’t agree, that issue — the wages for the next year — can be determined by an arbitrator. The whole rest of the contract is locked in.”
Prior to the announcement of the tentative agreements last week, the unions had been asking for guaranteed wage increases of 2.5 percent in 2016, and 2.5 percent in 2017.
Health care
Perhaps the biggest benefit of the tentative agreements is something they don’t mention — high health-insurance deductibles the unions had been facing prior to last week’s City Council meeting.
Before learning that the city administration and the unions had come to the agreements, aldermen had been slated to consider a proposal requiring all police officers and firefighters hired on or before June 30, 2011, to pay health insurance deductibles of $6,450 for a single plan or $12,900 for a family plan.
With contract negotiations at an impasse, and unions barred from negotiating health care plan design, administration officials had said requiring the high deductibles was their best attempt at getting about $2 million in benefits savings needed to help close a projected budget deficit of between $4 million and $6 million.
Under the contracts slated for City Council consideration next Tuesday, Oct. 21, police officers and firefighters would have the same health care plan as other city employees.
Instead of paying 5 percent of their health care costs as they currently do, they would pay 10 percent, bringing their monthly premiums from a capped amount of about $40 for a single person and about $70 for a family plan to $66 for a single plan and $174 for family plan.
Their deductibles would go from $300 for a single plan and $600 for a family plan to $400 for a single plan and $800 for a family plan.
They could also choose a “buy down” plan where premiums would be lower, but premiums would be $2,000 for a single plan or $4,000 for a family.
Staff officer contracts
Although recent conflicts between the city and the police and fire unions focused primarily on Firefighters Local 321 and the Racine Police Association, the contracts recommended for approval Tuesday include agreements with two other groups: the Staff Officers Association of the Racine Police Association, and the Staff Officers Association of the Racine Fire Department.
The Staff Officers Association of the RPA represents about 40 police lieutenants and sergeants. Despite being managers, the lieutenants and sergeants do not have the ability to hire and fire people, and by law are still able to bargain, Letteney explained.
The Staff Officers Association of the RFD has about five members, representing battalion and division chiefs that also serve as managers but can’t hire or fire, he said.
In order to be finalized, each of the four contracts must be approved by the full City Council and ratified by each of the unions. The RPA has already ratified its contract, union president Criminalist Todd Hoover said Tuesday. Local 321 is slated to vote on its contract today or Thursday, its president Capt. Jeff Petersen said Tuesday.