City workers will get pay increases

The employees' union votes overwhelmingly to ratify a new three-year contract, and city commissioners follow suit with a vote of their own.

By ERIC STIRGUS

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 16, 2001

LARGO -- About 350 city employees will receive a 7 percent raise in each of the next three years under a contract agreement between the workers' union and the city.

The contract was approved Monday night by members of the Communications Workers of America Local 3179 by an overwhelming 176-14 vote. The union represents city garbage workers, some Wastewater Treatment Plant employees, recreation and parks workers, office personnel, police evidence technicians and other employees.

City commissioners approved the new agreement at a meeting Tuesday night.

"They're happy," said union vice president Roger Francisco, who does carpentry and masonry for the city's Public Works Department. "It's been a long time since we got a deal this good."

Although the new contract means the city will spend an additional $2-million in payroll during the next three years, city officials said they were prepared for such an increase and were confident it would not put Largo under any financial strain.

"The financial impact is something we can handle," said Assistant City Manager Henry Schubert, who negotiated the new contract for the city.

Mayor Bob Jackson, who cast the lone vote against the contract, is not so sure. He wonders whether the increase will eventually prompt the city to dip into its reserve funds, currently at $4.5-million, or raise property taxes.

"There is no question in my mind that we are facing a tax increase," Jackson said Wednesday.

Schubert said he hopes the new deal will put the brakes on some workers who leave the city for more financially lucrative offers. A salary survey done for the city last year showed Largo lagged behind other Florida cities in salary for most positions.

"We anticipate this increase will make us a more attractive place to work, so it will reduce turnover," Schubert said.

Three of the 55 people who responded to a city survey of employees who have left Largo this year said a higher salary was the main factor in their departure.

Union officials say they were pleased with the new deal, although they say the salaries of most of their members are still below those of municipal employees in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater. Under the terms of the last contract, CWA workers got a 4.5 percent salary increase for each of the last three years.

"We're up a lot better than what we were," said Francisco, who said negotiations went quickly and smoothly.

The city's effort to offer salaries comparable to other municipalities' follows an agreement with its police officers in which they will receive a 5 percent raise this year and an agreement with the city's firefighters which bumps their salaries by an average of 28 percent over three years.

The new contract also takes away Good Friday as a paid holiday. In exchange, the workers will have off Martin Luther King Day.

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