PEP, December 2013-January 2014: Cultural institution workers approve 2013-15 pension deal

Public Employee Press

Cultural institution workers approve 2013-15 pension deal

Cultural institution workers overwhelmingly approved an agreement Nov. 1 that protects and secures their core retirement benefits.

"These were perhaps the most difficult pension negotiations we have ever had, but we're happy to say it worked out," said Michael Riggio, director of the DC 37 White Collar Division.

"In the end, our persistence at the bargaining table preserved our basic pension plan," said Cuthbert Dickenson, president of Quasi-Public Employees Local 374. "We're glad members strongly backed the agreement."

In a mail-ballot vote tabulated by the independent American Arbitration Association on Nov. 1, 394 members of
DC 37 voted for the agreement while 46 opposed it.

The Cultural Retirement System is more than 100 percent funded. But the system faced three major challenges to be addressed in negotiations:

the loss of 1,200 CIRS members caused by the restructuring of the city's day-care system involving the transfer of services to non-union clinics;
the refusal of the Bloomberg administration and management to increase their contributions, and
recovery of investment losses following the 2008 financial crisis.

Earlier this year, the CIRS trustees raised the contribution rate used to fund the non-contributory defined benefit pension from 7.3 percent to 9.1 percent of payroll, but they didn't address the mechanics of the funding. The plan covers all staff in the cultural institutions and day-care centers; it guarantees covered individuals a lifetime benefit based on their years of services and the average salary for the highest-paid four consecutive years during their last ten years of service.

After intense negotiations, DC 37 and the employers agreed to suspend the employer contribution to the employees' 401(k) plan for the term of the agreement, which lasts from July 1 of this year to June 30, 2015, and add the value of the employer 401(k) match to the pension plan.

Most important, the agreement leaves intact the non-contributory structure of the pension plan.

David Paskin, the associate director of the DC 37 Research and Negotiations Dept., headed the union's negotiating team. Besides Paskin, the participants included Riggio; Dickenson and Leonard Paul, Local 374's chapter chair at Brooklyn Botanical Gardens; William Vera, president of American Museum of Natural History Local 1306; former President Robert Herkommer of Wildlife Conservation Society Local 1501; William Souffrant, president of Brooklyn Museum Local 1509, and President Peter Vreeland and Vice President Erik O'Brien of American Museum of Natural History Local 1559.

Members of Metropolitan Museum of Art Local 1503 are not covered by CIRS. The Metropolitan Museum of Art runs its own pension system.