AFSCME Local 1095 has settled its successor cba with Erie County, ECMC Hospital, Terrace View, Buffalo/Erie County Public Libraries, and *Erie Community College.
Erie County Legislators approved the tentative agreement in a 10-0 vote on April 7, 2022. In response to high inflation, Covid-related staffing issues, and the consumer price index, parties agreed upon a new wage structure in a 5-year contract worth almost 25%.
Changes to the cba as follows:
2022: $2.00 per hour
2023: 3.5%
2024: 2.5%
2025: 2.5%
2026: 2.5%
Bereavement leave provisions were amended to include more close relationships. Now members can take leave if their great grandparents, step-children, foster-children, step-parents, or step-siblings pass away.
Shift differential––the amount earned when working odd hours––increased from .85 cents to $1.50 an hour.
In some departments, employees will be allowed to work a 4-day work week with 10-hour days, a first for all 1095 employers.
Rich Canazzi, president of the local since 2015, said that both parties were keen on settling the contract, “We had to take into consideration what Covid did to all communities. Employers were attracting workers with higher wages. People go where the money is, and we must be up to par with other companies in the community.”
AFSCME 1095 represents 1300 members––all public sector workers––in the Buffalo area. Cost of living increases and pay adjustments were settled with all employers except *Erie Community College, which will reopen negotiations with the Union prior to the end of 2022. The contract expired on December 31, 2021.