Pensacola Reaches Labor Agreement With Union

June 14, 2012

The City of Pensacola and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3253 have reached an agreement on a new three-year contract, which includes a number of pension reforms expected to cut the city’s unfunded pension liability by nearly $5 million and reduce annual pension costs.

The agreement would cover the city’s 145 general service employees represented by AFSCME. Union members ratified the contract Tuesday, and Mayor Ashton Hayward plans to submit the agreement to the City Council for consideration at their July meeting.

“I want to thank Local 3253 president Kimberly Aguiar and her team for negotiating in good faith,” said Hayward. “With our unfunded pension liability and annual pension costs threatening the city’s long-term fiscal stability, I appreciate AFSCME’s engagement and willingness to help us take action on these critical issues.”

In exchange for wage considerations, the union agreed to several changes in how pension benefits are calculated, as well as to changes in the Deferred Retirement Option Program (DROP) and survivor benefits to conform to those offered by the Florida Retirement System (FRS). The pension changes will help reduce the Pensacola’s annual pension costs and unfunded pension liability, which in recent years has ballooned to more than $116 million.

In return, the city will provide a 10% wage increase for AFSCME-represented employees, to be distributed over the next three years. “When we ask our employees to accept changes to their retirement benefits, it’s only fair that we use a portion of the savings to adjust compensation packages for those affected,” said Hayward.

If approved by the City Council, the new collective bargaining agreement will take effect October 1.

Pictured: Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward with members of AFSCME Local 3253. Courtesy photo for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.

Comments

3 Responses to “Pensacola Reaches Labor Agreement With Union”

  1. Rufus Lowgun on June 14th, 2012 4:54 pm

    Good for the municipal employees for getting a raise, however small, and good to both sides in for negotiating. Unions are not the problem, nor are they the reason the economy is bad or the debt is high. Imagine, contributing to a pension fund throughout your working life, and then getting a modest retirement income when you retire. Sounds wonderful. Why people want to take that away from folks because they don’t have it, rather than trying to acquire that kind of security themselves, is a mystery to me. It always reminds me of the child who doesn’t want a toy until they see another child playing with it, then they pitch a fit.

  2. Sandra on June 14th, 2012 8:52 am

    In a nutshell, the city has been making minimum payments to their credit card (pension funds) for a very long time and now the interest (unfunded liability) is eating them up. If they had not been shirking their payments for all these years they would not be in the position they now find themselves in. Oh but the good city employees have made “concessions” to alleviate the problems..which translates to, a large number of employees who only averaged 19,000 per year retirement before, now will make considerably less. Oh joy

  3. well on June 14th, 2012 5:09 am

    That is a small raise but what happened to noone is getting raises around here?
    Oh yeah, they have not received them yet. Only considerations.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News