The Johnston Town Council unanimously approved a resolution ratifying a new, three-year agreement between the town and the Local 1491 municipal union during its meeting on Feb. 11.
There was no discussion before the council took its vote, but Local 1491 President Kelly Abbruzzese offered brief remarks following the passage of the deal.
“We just wanted to thank you all for ratifying the contract,” Abbruzzese said. “I think we all agree we all worked very hard on this contract and we’re happy it went through.”
In a follow-up interview with the Sun Rise on Tuesday, Mayor Joseph Polisena agreed and said the contract was fair. He said the town will save hundreds of thousands of dollars after switching the union from Blue Cross to a health savings account, or HSA.
Polisena said that Blue Cross has become too expensive, and that an HSA would allow the town to manage its health care rather than being tied into consistent spikes in costs.
“I think it’s a substantial savings for the taxpayers,” he said. “What we’ve done, too, is any new employees, ever since a couple years ago, no one gets health care after retirement anymore if you’re a new employee. So we’ve done a lot to save the taxpayers money. We’re very happy it passed. The union I think is very happy, too. It’s a fair contract. It’s fair for the taxpayers. It’s fair for the employees, and I’m very fortunate.”
The contract includes three annual raises, including one retroactive to last July when the previous agreement expired. That raise will boost wages 1.5 percent, while the upcoming July increase is 2 percent. Next July will see wages go up 2.5 percent.
Polisena lauded the work of his municipal employees, whom he said “don’t make a lot of money to begin with.” According to figures in the contract, after the retroactive raise is applied, Clerk I earns the lowest wage at $18.35 an hour. The highest rate applies to the payroll administrator, who makes $35.59 an hour. Most municipal employees, though, make between $19 and $24 per hour.
“We have some great employees,” Polisena said. “This town runs like a well-oiled machine and that’s not because of me, it’s because of the employees. I’ve got some really good municipal employees and we’re very happy with them.”
He added: “People think that, because you work for the town you make a ton of money. They don't make a lot of money. They have good fringe benefits, which they’re entitled to, and their salary is OK. It’s not great, but we can only afford to pay them so much.”
Polisena said the negotiations were affected very little by what he called the “lifetime” contract bill passed on the state level last year. The legislation allows for the continuance of wages and benefits for teachers and municipal workers as they bargain for a new deal.
Polisena noted that the union knew about the bill, but it didn’t hamper much in the five months of talks.
“I don’t think so, because there was a new regime that took over – as far as president and vice president – where the first regime, we were kind of going back and forth and we did hit a roadblock, but then with the new regime we sat down and cooler heads prevailed and we ended up getting a good deal for taxpayers and a good deal for the employees,” the mayor said. “We want to treat them fairly because they work hard.”
Polisena said that all of the contracts across town – police, fire and Local 808 – are wrapped up for at least another couple of years. He predicts he will have one more negotiation with each union before his final term ends in 2022.
“We did five years with [police and fire] because we had a pension issue with those and state law says if you have an issue with the pensions you can go five years, and we did,” he said. “We had an issue with the pensions, which we fixed. Police and fire sat down – once again, cooler heads prevailed – we worked with the fire, worked with the police officers and we obviously made some benefit cuts.”
Despite the town’s improved financial standing between contracts, Polisena said he doesn’t like to “give the store away” in negotiations. He said, though, that it’s vital to ensure employees can take home a fair wage.
“If we hit tough times, two to four years from now, I don’t want to put the town on the hook saying they get really fat raises,” he said. “They’re modest raises. We got more than a modest savings, I can tell you that. We’re happy. Two years is two years away, so we’ll see what that brings … They keep the town going. I’ve got to say it, this town runs like a well-oiled machine because of the employees that I have.”
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