Anchorage

Sullivan administration reaches tentative deal with Anchorage police union

Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan's administration has reached a tentative deal on a new contract with the city police union.

The agreement comes four months after voters rejected the Sullivan administration's divisive rewrite of city labor law, Anchorage Ordinance 37. Members of the Anchorage Police Department Employees Association were among the most vocal critics of the law and campaigned aggressively against it.

The new contract, which the union's 467 members ratified March 2, still needs to be approved by the Anchorage Assembly. The contract restructures the way police employees are paid and converts union members to the city's health care plan, which comes with a less-generous benefits package. City officials said the health plan change, which will require police employees to start paying more toward their health care, will amount to savings of $7.7 million over the contract's three-year term.

On the salary side, the contract includes a 1.5 percent raise in July, followed by annual raises of 2.5 percent, 1.5 percent and 1.5 percent. The deal also clarifies the wage schedule and sets up a higher starting salary for new employees, as well as adding wage "step" increases of 2.5 percent to retain longer-serving employees.

Starting in 2016, police employees will no longer receive performance-based pay increases.

The shift to the new health care program brings police union members in line with most other municipal employees and comes a year after the Sullivan administration restructured how the plan works, said Nancy Usera, employee relations director.

One notable change is that under the current program, some police employees are able to take home as much as $724 in additional wages after paying health care premiums. The city health care plan does not have that cash-back option, Usera said.

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Police employees will also be asked to contribute more toward their health insurance plan, a total of 6 percent, starting in 2016. That contribution rate will rise to 10 percent in 2017.

Four unions representing municipal workers still have their own health care plans: Local 1547 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 302 Operating Engineers, Local 71 Laborers/Public Employees, and Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 367.

Sullivan said in an interview Monday that the new contract was "based on the same goals that were in AO 37," and he pointed to the elimination of the health plan's cash-back option as well as performance-based wage increases. He said the contract reflected the administration's guidelines of keeping wage increases in pace with the cost of living.

Other elements of AO 37, such as a controversial provision to dismantle an overtime system based on seniority, did not make it into the new contract.

Sullivan said he didn't regret the AO 37 process, which he said "showed the public some of the disparities of what the public sector was receiving."

Union president Gerard Asselin, meanwhile, said the new contract is proof that the current system works.

"We think (the contract) serves as a great illustration of how the current collective bargaining ordinance works effectively for both parties," Asselin said. "And it certainly demonstrates to us that there's no need for anything as drastic as what AO 37 represented."

Contract negotiations are still underway between the Sullivan administration and the city's fire union, Local 264 of the International Association of Firefighters.

Devin Kelly

Devin Kelly was an ADN staff reporter.

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