Jackson City 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 workers will have a voice in their pay and benefits. The contract provides for a wage reopener in March/April 2008, and a union seat on the city's insurance committee which determines the cost and coverage of workers' health insurance. The agreement contains payroll dues deduction, rare in public employee contracts, and especially union contracts in Right-to-Work states. The contract provides workers with dues process rights through a grievance procedure and provides time off with pay to up to 15 union stewards while handling and investigating members' grievances.

A majority of the workers have already signed up for union membership. "These workers have demonstrated what can be achieved through sheer determination," commented District 3 Vice President Noah Savant. "When the workers first sought to organize, they did not even have the right to organize," he said. "Now they have not only a union, but bargaining rights and their first tentative agreement."