Get back to the table! 16.5% and new 75 dollar a month additional tobacco surcharge is a terrible deal. We deserve bettter!
10 replies (most recent on top)
Smoking may not be a necessity, however, it is a right.
It’s one of the better contracts I’ve seen in a while.
Bet you are loving that percentage you pay to the union to get you less pay lol
Keep asking for more, regardless if you deserve it or not. Its never enough.
I'm sorry you lost your healthcare benefits. You will now work until age 65 to get medicare and YOU WILL LIKE IT.
Keep asking for more, regardless if you deserve it or not. Its never enough.
The Tobacco surcharge is great idea. This way it lowers my non smoking rates. By the way, smoking is not a necessity.
Effective June 23, 2024, an adjustment will be made in basic weekly rates in each wagc schedule. The amount of the adjustment shall be 0.5 times the increase above three percent (3%) in the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics “CPI-W” (1982-84 = 100) for December 2023 over December 2022. The adjustment, if any, will be added to the 2024 general wage increase and applied exponentially with no change to starting wages. However, in no event shall the wage increase for 2024 exceed 3.25% in total.
So, it looks like the "COLA" only takes into account inflation over 3%, adds half the inflation (0.5) to wages, and is capped so that the wage increase of 2.5% along with the inflation adjustment doesn't equal more than 3.25%.
So, if inflation is 5%, they'll add half the amount over 3%, or 1%, except, whoops, the wage increase is already 2.5%, so they'll add 0.75% to equal 3.25% as far as I can tell.
Between incremental tax brackets, and increasing health cost co-pays, I see the odds are, the worker falls behind.
COLA went away in the 80's.
I see the COLA as the stumbling block in this. Like the Orange contract, there seems to be a cap that, if inflation continued even at half the rate we've experienced this year, would have "real" earnings declining year over year.
What needs to be much more clearly explained is where the break-even points are. For instance, if the inflation is 5% year over year, is the worker still ahead? 7% year over year?
That is where the plain english is missing in all of the contract "explanations".
Maybe quit smoking then, especially if you are one of the dirtbags that does it in your company vehicle.