APLE Contract Extension Meeting
August 30, 2024, 6:30 p.m.
Sanger Branch
Agenda
Officer Roll Call
Teresa Alvarado
Steve Nichols
Carlye Seybold
Amy Hartman
David Lutz
Juliette Hebert
Morgan Rinckey
Meeting Minutes
6:35 call to order
Contract Extension
Emilio Ramirez, President of UAW Local 5242/TAAP, led the meeting.
Irene from HR contacted APLE for a year extension on the contract because of the bond issue in November.
HR didn’t reach out for a while after the initial contact.
We were about to register to start negotiations.
HR had to submit an offer for APLE to vote on.
They wanted to go down to 2% for a wage increase and merit based increments. We refused. 5% increments are already negotiated, we are not changing that.
HR used a comp study to compare what other librarians in urban libraries make, noted that we are at the top of the list for salaries.
The extension was negotiated: see attachment–4% increase, and APLE and HR must come to an agreement on Sick Leave, including Sick Leave Bank and Short Term Disability.
We could go earlier next year for negotiations if we need to.
What are the pros and cons to going now?
They could offer less money or drag their feet, ect…
Exempt are having significant changes made to their wage scale, with merit raises based on evaluation scores.
If they base raises on evals, this year's evals were not done well.
Managers got a 4% bonus, not a wage increase.
The average raise for union jobs Toledo is 3.25%
If you're still in the increment grid (steps), you will get your 5% increment and the 4% wage increase.
What roll does HR play in the bond issue?
We are unsure, maybe learning how to negotiate with unions or delay for PR.
How do exempt salaries compare to others?
This is unclear for the moment.
Did CWA have to make the same arguments?
HR asked both unions to give up the current percentage for increment increases.
Labor management meetings address filling in vacant spots and trying to get more subs, it’s not something the union can put into negotiations.
CWA has approved their contract extension, is there a benefit to negotiating first?
We have a bit better contract because we go second, so there may not be a benefit to going first.
Is there anything else we can negotiate for with this?
If we try to put more in the extension, they may not negotiate it with us because at that point it would just be a full contract negotiation.
If we don’t come to an agreement on SL, we could grieve it and put it before the board to decide.
The 4% we are getting is a general wage increase/increase in salary schedule
Motion is made and seconded to approve the contract extension. Vote is called.
36 in Favor of approving contract extension
1 Opposed
Motion approved.
Survey Questions
Why do we have management rights in our contract?
It's in there so we all understand how we function, what are everyone's rights. It’s not something we can take out.
Management Rights sections are common across union contracts.
In 2009 during the economic downturn:
In years previously, the 10% OPERS pick up was in lieu of a raise years before.
Library removed OPERS pick from the contract for new hires.
The newer levels have a higher pay rate, but no OPERS pickup, which is intended to even out career earnings.
APLE has been trying to get more AL accrual up for newer people.
A question and debate about compensation for people with masters not in MLIS.
Member: There is a value to both an MLIS and masters degrees in related fields that are relevant to the job.
Specialists have a degree that has to do with the job they are doing, i.e. Business librarian has a degree in business.
Member: MLIS degrees have a value. Learned parts of librarianship that you would not get from other masters programs.
Member: We accept any bachelors for librarian 6, why not masters for 7?
Could there be more compensation for people who work at branches that are open 4 nights and weekends?
If you are having specific issues with your manager, talk to APLE before it becomes a bigger problem.