College,
UAW Ratify Contract
by Alyson Dame
Last
Friday the College and UAW workers ratified a new contract after
weeks of negotiations. The new contract will last for three years.
I think both the management and unions can say we have a good
contract, Director of Human Resources Ruth Spencer said.
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Workers
Look Forward to Fair Play: After weeks of negotiation,
the contract between the College and UAW workers has
been signed. (photo by Hans Peterson)
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OCOPE
and the United Auto Workers are the two unions with Oberlin College
employees. Spencer estimates that about 400 College employees belong
to a union. Both of these bargaining units were negotiating new
salaries over the past summer. Healthcare may have been the most
significant change in the new UAW contract. The last contract had
a plan that did not require premiums or co-payments. All other
employees, except bargaining unit employees, were already paying
a premium and co-pays, Spencer said.
UAW also proposed a new scheduling procedure, which was implemented.
We went with their recommendation. Its just a different
way of doing scheduling, it didnt affect anyones seniority.
And we are in concert with the union in how the schedule is to be
implemented, Spencer said.
Allison
Trimble, a UAW member and DeCafé employee, did not mind the
new health care plan. It doesnt really bother me, you
get a better selection of doctors, she said.
Both unions saw improvements in their contracts. There were
salary increases to 4 percent for both unions. There were increases
in retirement for both unions. There was [an] increase in holiday
for both unions, Spencer said.
Trimble was appreciative of a revised maternity leave plan. You
get two months of leave instead of one, she said. One UAW
employee in food service was satisfied with the plan, and glad the
negotiation process was over. Since the contract was ratified, nine
vacant spots in food service have been announced, which will help
ease an employee shortage problem.
Spencer, who has worked all summer on the contracts, was also relieved
to have the time-consuming process complete. It always takes
longer than Id like, but if you want a good contract you have
to go through this process, she said.
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