Recent agreements on the final portion of the 2000-2002 economic contract will put extra money in the pockets of nearly 20,000 members.

Since late summer, five bargaining units including 18 DC 37 local unions have wrapped up negotiations on allocating the pact’s Additional Compensation Fund, (1 percent of the 1999 payroll). The units decided to use the ACF money for payments ranging from straight raises to longevities and recurring increment payments (RIPs).

“The bargaining committees really like the freedom to utilize part of the total economic value of the contract in ways that work best for their members,” said DC 37 Director of Research and Negotiations Dennis Sullivan.”

Here is how the units opted to receive the extra money:

• Representing 8,000 members, the locals in the White Collar unit at the City University of New York chose various forms of payment.
  Locals 2627 and 1407 selected a new longevity at five years, Local 375 picked an across-the-board wage increase, Local 2054 is bolstering the benefits fund for its retirees, and Local 384 chose new five- and 10-year longevities for reprographic and mail message titles and a pay increase of almost 1 percent for titles that have longevities.
  The CUNY payments will be retroactive to Sept. 30, 2002, when the unit’s economic agreement expired. (The corresponding contract for mayoral agencies and cultural institutions ended March 31, 2002.)
• DC 37’s three library locals — Brooklyn Library Guild Local 1482, New York Public Library Guild Local 1930 and Queens Library Guild Local 1320 — opted for a $749 recurring increment payment after seven years for about 1,400 workers in Librarian titles.
• The Emergency Medical Service locals in the Hospital Technicians Unit chose to increase their 10-year RIPs from $520 to $1,387 for the EMS officers in Local 3621 and from $482 to $1,169 for members of Uniformed EMS Technicians and Paramedics Local 2507.
• The Health Services Unit chose across-the-board wage increases of about 1 percent for 6,000 members of AFSCME Local 299, United Federation of Nurses and Epidemiologists Local 436, Health Services Employees Local 768 and Psychologists Local 1189.
• Workers in the Seasonals Unit, including members of Motor Vehicle Operators Local 983, Lifeguards Local 461 and Lifeguard Supervisors Local 508, chose across-the-board wage hikes.

The union is pressing the employers to implement these agreements as soon as possible. DC 37 and the locals have now concluded virtually all the unit contracts linked to the citywide economic agreement. The exception is Dept. of Transportation Supervisory Local 1157. The local is exercising its right under Section 220 of the state Labor Law to have its members’ pay determined by the comptroller, who will do this by comparing their wages with the prevailing rates for comparable workers in the private sector.