Though Independence residents might look at a recently approved city agreement and say, “You’re contemplating wage increases for a group of employees in this economy?” the city manager maintains the increase is to remain competitive in a demanding field.
The Independence City Council unanimously approved an emergency ordinance Monday night outlining a five-year agreement with Local Union 53 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents Independence Power & Light employees. As the second, five-year agreement of its kind between the city and the union, the agreement actually took effect Nov. 1, 2009, through three, one-month contract extensions while the current agreement was negotiated, City Counselor Allen Garner said.
The agreement provides for across-the-board wage increases of 2.5 percent on Nov. 1, 2009; 3 percent on Nov. 1, 2010; 3.5 percent on Nov. 1, 2011; 3.75 percent on Nov. 1, 2012; and 4 percent on Nov. 1, 2013.
“We’re in an extremely competitive environment,” City Manager Robert Heacock said.
No additional Power & Light Department rate increase will take place to account for the wage increases, Heacock said.
A lineman, or a person who installs and repairs electrical or telephone lines, is a position that is in high demand, Heacock said.
The city is working to attract additional apprentices in the Power & Light Department, though utility departments across the United States “are looking at extraordinary measures” to attract and to retain high-quality linemen, Heacock said. Within the next five years, he said, “a significant segment” of the Power & Light Department will be eligible for retirement, with about half of the city’s linemen possibly retiring.
“We understand that it might come across in a certain way to folks who are looking at it with the economy the way it is,” Heacock said. “We’re still competitive in the market, which is important.”
According to Bruce VanCompernolle, a business representative with IBEW Local No. 53, the extended negotiations between city staff and the union went well, though a few difficult items “had to be hammered out.”
“The wage increase is fair,” VanCompernolle said. “Right now, in these times, it’s kind of difficult to get the wage increases we would like to have. Given the economic state that we’re in right now, I think it’s a fair agreement. Hopefully, things will be better when the agreement is up and we can get a little bit more.”
Neighborhood rezoning approved at Holke Road
Without discussion, council members unanimously approved rezoning an 18-acre site from single-family residential to neighborhood commercial near the northeast corner of Missouri 78 and Holke Road in eastern Independence. About five residents spoke in opposition of the project, known as The Village Shops at Spring Branch Creek, during the Dec. 15 Independence Planning Commission meeting. (Commission members recommended the case for approval.)
