In the News: Jackson City, Miss., Workers Reach First Tentative Contract

A little over a year and a half since gaining collective bargaining rights in June 2006, Jackson, Mississippi's 1,200 city employees achieved another milepost in their remarkable struggle to organize and improve their jobs, negotiating their first union contract with the city. The workers are represented by CWA's Mississippi Alliance of State Employees (MASE-CWA Local 3570).

The tentative agreement, up for a ratification vote in mid February, "lays a strong foundation and real economic gains for workers who have suffered for years under our city's tight budgets," said MASE-CWA President Brenda Scott.

The contract gives workers a voice in their pay and benefits with a wage reopener this spring and a union seat on the city's insurance committee, which determines the cost and coverage of workers' health insurance. The contract includes a grievance procedure and time off with pay for up to 15 union stewards while handling and investigating members' cases.

"When the workers first sought to organize, they did not even have the right to organize," District 3 Vice President Noah Savant said.  "Now they have not only a union, but bargaining rights and their first tentative agreement."