Four union contracts — roughly half of city employees — before council Monday night

Concord City Hall
Published: 01-12-2025 12:00 PM |
Four collective bargaining agreements — with unions representing police patrol officers, police supervisors, city office workers and public works employees — will go before the city council Monday representing $1.7 million more in spending next year, perhaps more.
The two police contracts provide 5% wage increases annually for three years and give officers who work Thanksgiving and Christmas twice their base pay on top of the holiday pay rate. The patrolmen’s contract also includes an added $0.75 and $1.25 per hour for working evening and midnight shifts.
Each contract increases the amount of paid time off to six weeks after 10 years of employment. In total, these agreements are for 302 employees, which represents a little more than half the city payroll. Compensation and benefits make up about three-quarters of the city’s current $83 million general fund or standard operating budget.
Once the city budget process comes along, costs tied to employment contracts are fixed.
The tentative agreements appear on the city council’s consent agenda for its meeting Monday night, meaning residents won’t have a chance to make public comment about them and councilors are not scheduled to discuss them publicly before voting on them.
In its first year, the police patrolmen’s contract will add $721,130 in cost to the city, according to a city report. The supervisors’ contract will add $180,820 in the same period.
The other two contracts offer workers 4% annual raises. The municipal employees’ union, which represents many public works employees, will add $335,609 in costs in the first year, while the UAW contract, covering a wide range of city staff from librarians to code inspectors to wastewater managers, will add $473,602.
Across the board, employees in their first year will now receive three weeks of vacation time. At the other end of the scale, those in their 10th year and beyond will now get six weeks. While increasing paid leave doesn’t necessarily have an immediate cost, according to city reports, it’s likely to lead to more overtime to fill shifts and can mean higher vacation time payouts down the road.
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City Manager Tom Aspell also noted that the city puts money in the budget each year as a cushion for retirement payouts and unanticipated cost increases related to new contracts.
These contracts represent four of the six unions representing city staff. The fire officers union has been out of a contract since July, while the association representing firefighters, whose contract ends in June, will begin negotiations with the city in the coming weeks.
Catherine McLaughlin can be reached at cmclaughlin@cmonitor.com.