New Cranston Laborers Contract Includes Raises and Concessions

The Cranston City Council on Monday approved a new contract with the Laborers International Union Local 1322 that will give members raises each year over three years in a 8-1 vote.

The contract, which is retroactive from July 1 2014 and covers up to June 30 of 2017, is expected to create an additional $451,830 in costs for the city over its life, according to a fiscal impact statement prepared by the city’s finance director.

The contract also is designed to encourage older, higher-paid employees to retire, which would lower operating costs as newer employees take their slots. Members who have reached the voluntary retirement age would be “inclined to retire from active employment if those members were assured continuing access to health coverage benefits for a period of one year [after retirement],” according to the resolution.

According to the contract, employees will get consecutive raises of 3.45, 3.7 and 4.18 percent. The total amount of the increase over the contract term will be 11.33 percent.

Savings, along with the expected retirements, will come from increased contributions for health and dental insurance by new employees, which goes up from 15 to 20 percent. New employees will also accrue vacation time rather than get a lump number of days to start in their first year of employment, do not have defined pension benefits, longevity pay or other perks enjoyed by “grandfathered” employees.

The lone dissenting vote against the contract was City Councilman Steve Stycos, who said that the raises were “indefensible.”

Stycos said that the case had not been made that the employees covered under the contract, who work in the public works, highway, building maintenance, parks and recreation and fleet maintenance departments, are so underpaid to deserve such big raises.

And the City Council’s auditor said that the increased cost would be nearly double the finance director’s $450,000 estimate.

But other members disagreed, noting that the average wages aren’t so high in the first place and many employees are city residents who pay taxes. Considering that raising a family on a salary of less than $50,000 is virtually impossible and most workers make less than that, “it’s probably not enough for the work these people do,” said Councilman Don Botts.

Under the new contract, employees will also pay increased contributions into the pension fund to the tune of 10 percent extra, from $1.54 to $1.70 per hour effective Jan. 1 of 2016. The rate goes up by another 10 percent for the next two years, landing at $2.06 per hour by 2018.