Your bargaining team met with the County today. We opened up by giving them a counter proposal on wages:

• 6 % – Year 1
• 5.5 % -Year 2

The County has held at:

• 3% – Year 1
• 3% – Year 2

We did sign off on the longevity proposal. One of the team’s biggest concerns was language around health care. We were successful in keeping in the language referencing the Affordable Care Act. Why is that important? Because it is through the ACA that you are allowed to keep your children covered under your insurance until they are 26-years-old. It also mandates affordability, no discrimination for pre-existing conditions, preventative care/screenings, and identifies the minimum plans must offer. At this time, the only changes to  the ACA portion are the subsidies an individual gets to help with their premiums.

The team is also holding strong onto the proposal to get Juneteenth as a regular holiday, without having to trade anything for it.

We are also looking at part-time/temp worker hours and benefits.  Again, all agreements are temporary until we have a ratification vote.  Once we have that, we will notify membership of all the agreements and then hold a final vote.