New Four-Year Labor Agreement with Lower Merion Workers Union Passes in 'Close Vote'

In what Township Manager Doug Cleland called "a close vote" Thursday night, the 206-member Lower Merion Township Workers Association ratified a four-year labor contract with the administration, representatives from both sides said in a news release Friday.

The deal—which is retroactive to Jan. 1, when employees began working without a contract—will cost about $700,000 more than the 2007-2010 contract, Cleland told reporters in a conference call. All told, the contract amounts to about $15 million a year in salaries, health care and other benefits.

In lieu of pay raises this year, employees will get one-size-fits-all lump-sum payments soon after the Board of Commissioners approves the deal, which is expected to happen Wednesday. Full-time employees would get $1,300, part-timers $300, and Cleland is recommending that payments of those sizes go to 83 non-union township employees, too—something the board can also decide Wednesday.

Employees would then get 2.5 percent raises in 2012 and 2.75 percent raises in 2013 and 2014, though they also would begin paying more for health care: 5.25 percent beginning in September, up from 4 percent, then 6 percent beginning in January 2012 and 6.5 percent in January 2014.

Said union president George McElhaney, "Though the process has been lengthy, the system worked. We now have a long-term labor contract that preserved our important working conditions and benefits while providing cost savings to the township and our citizens.”

In all, the contract will cost about $2.1 million more in salaries but save $1.4 million in health care costs, Cleland said.

“The overall additional costs for this contract are minor, while substantial long-term cost containment and savings in employee healthcare expenses and future new hires was achieved,” Cleland said.

Only a handful of employees have been hired over the past several years, and Cleland said he could not predict whether there would be any more hires soon, though he said he did not anticipate layoffs, either.

The other union containing township employees, the Fraternal Order of Police, has its three-year contract expire at the end of 2012, Cleland said.

Cleland said 113 of 206 union members voted Thursday night and that it was "a close vote," though he did not know the exact figures.

A "very pleased" board president Elizabeth Rogan said the deal would "create personnel cost stability and consistency in our township organization."

The terms of the new contract are attached to this article and also were to be posted at lowermerion.org Friday.