Overview of Unit Contract Bargaining in 2026

PRESENTATION TO 375 MEMBERS

8/4/26

Additional Compensation Funds (ACF)

• Each economic contract for DC37 members sets aside Additional Compensation Funds (ACFs) to be used for subsequently negotiated bargaining unit contracts
• The 2021-2026 contract allocated .5% of payroll for ACF spending
• We have been waiting since Spring 2023 for this money

​

This is language from 2021-2026, but the next contract will likely also have ACF

Bargaining Unit of Engineering & Scientific (E&S) titles

• Most 375 members are in E&S and it is the largest local in this unit, at around 5,000+ members
• 375 holds a bargaining certificate along with DC37, which means the president of 375 must sign off on the negotiated contract
• Next largest is 3005 (~1300 members), 3599 (<300), 3778 (<300)
• DC37 assigned to our bargaining unit the following staff person within the Research and Negotiations Department- Ben Totushek
• It’s worth knowing that DC37 already has it planned that after this unit contract is negotiated, Ben will no longer be the negotiator. Aziza Sumler will. She is new to DC37

Bargaining Timeline

• In Spring 2024, local presidents of each bargaining unit met twice and submitted several proposals to Ben T. Mike Troman did not submit any proposals specific to 375
• The Office of Labor Relations costed them out in may 2026 (2 years of waiting for this)
• From Spring 2024 to June 2026, no caucus meetings happened. A wasted opportunity
• 3 caucus meetings happened in June and July. Bargaining with OLR started July 20

​

Scope of Unit Contracts

• Unit contracts are intended to deal with title-specific issues primarily.
• It is not where we get any across the board salary increases
• When our contracts expire the terms are still in place
• The last Engineering & Scientific unit contract that included workplace issues articles was the 2010-2017 unit contract. The 2018-2021 did not
• This means that in 2021, Mike Troman also didn’t negotiate much at all
• 3005 saw this contract as an opportunity to address other issues that cause problems for members on a day-to-day basis
• 3005 submitted 10 proposals: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KAVqc65Q50DWLD25ZyYHkhVPrwnL_z53-8OvAsuJAss/edit?tab=t.0

The 10 3005 Proposals

• The first and most popular is to codify work flexibility
• We had other proposals touching on:
• Understaffing, overtime cap waiver, reasonable driving distances for field inspectors, reducing contracting out/privatization, giving people their grievance rights, making bulletin boards electronic, extreme indoor and outdoor temperatures, expanding labor management meetings, removing requirement that experience occurs after masters

Recurring Increment Payments (RIPS)

• The .5% is a small amount of money to distribute to all members
• .5% does not go to general wage increases but they can be spent on additional payments, such as RIPs (RIPs appear on your paychecks)
• RIPs are small payments that you receive after 12 months of service. Each year it goes up by a set amount according to our unit contract (i.e., the RIP Schedule)
• RIPs only increase in these ways: 1) every time there is a general wage increase as set by our economic contract, 2) if we spend our ACFs to increase the RIP Schedule
• Check Your Paycheck guide: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CjoZCEKyNXAl8MbesYOd5F5XZIzwURCM5KbLte-4eUU/edit?tab=t.0

DC37 Asked E&S to Vote on RIPs on 6/29 and 7/13

• Caucus was asked to vote for 1 of 3 RIP spending scenarios
• 6/29 caucus meeting: Mike voted for a $10/year increase for non-Admin titles with an increase of $167 for Admin titles
• 3005 said we need to take this to our members; released a poll to vote
• 3005 argued for the need to have more members in the room. Local presidents and DC37 agreed 3 members could attend in addition to each local president. This was a win!

First RIP Scenario Agreed to on 7/13

• On 7/13 Mike Troman only brought Harry. 3005 brought a bargaining committee of 4. 3599 and 3778 brought no one else from their locals
• Greatest number of 3005 members voted for a $37/year increase
• 77% said they would take a lower RIP in exchange for work flexibility in the contract
• $37/26 paychecks= $1.42 more per paycheck
• Mike changed his mind and voted for a $37 increase for everyone
• After 6/29 and 7/13 meetings, 3005 released updates on Instagram

7/13 Caucus Meeting was Unprofessional

• Ben sent us negative feedback on our proposals at 10:02am on 7/13, after the start of the caucus meeting. Since the meeting began at 10am we had no opportunity to read and discuss the feedback from Ben
• We asked for a notetaker. Ben’s reply: I’ve never had a notetaker during negotiations and it’s too late to start now
• We spent almost 2 hours discussing the proposals of the other locals
• At the end they said they had NO TIME to discuss any of 3005’s!
• As proposals were discussed and modified verbally during the meeting, we were told to vote on them without seeing the final language in writing!

Disrespect During 7/13 Caucus

• 3005 had sent proposals to Ben on 7/7 for his input. At the caucus meeting he said he never received those proposals
• We sent 3 observers as agreed. Our observers were not allowed to speak but 375 brought one observer (Harry) who spoke 5-10 times
• Meghan was repeatedly interrupted by Ben T and the men on webex
• Ben said various inaccuracies or lies. Following the 7/13 meeting, he saw our updates on Instagram and got angry. Claimed we had agreed not to be public (which we had not agreed to). Rescinded ability to have members at negotiations meetings. Said they must sit in another room.

Getting the Rug Pulled From Under Us

• 3005 were told we would vote on RIPs first because we were going in the order of proposals submitted to DC37
• After voting on the RIPs, we were told that no economic proposals would be considered because the ACFs were now used up by RIPs
• We would not have voted if they had told us that up front
• Ben and local presidents said they didn’t have enough time to discuss 3005’s proposals. An email vote would be taken instead
• Meghan said we’re not ready to meet with the City given the lack of discussion of our proposals. We were told we would meet with the City on 7/20 no matter what

The DC37 Constitution

• The DC37 negotiator said their process was allowed by the DC37 Constitution. When Cristina asked him to cite which parts, his response: “This meeting is over.” He then adjourned the meeting
• But what does our DC37 constitution actually say? WE ALL VOTE