NORTH SMITHFIELD – Member of the North Smithfield Town Council approved a new contract with Rhode Island Council 94 Local 937 last week with raises and other benefits set to scale upwards over the next three years.
The agreement, passed unanimously at the council meeting on Monday, Sept. 16, will cost the town a total of roughly $188,000 over its duration beyond the terms of the previously deal with the union that expired in June, according to a fiscal impact statement provided by the Budget Committee.
The contract covers union staff in town departments including public works, animal control, finance and more, along with civilian dispatchers in the police department. All will receive a 2.5 percent salary increase in the first year, 3.25 percent in year two and 3.5 percent in year three of the agreement.
Employees will pay an increased co-share for health and dental, meanwhile, for town savings of roughly $5,000. Union staff will contribute 15 percent to the cost of health and dental premiums, up from 14 percent in the previous agreement.
The deal comes just as the broader statewide union, the largest in Rhode Island representing more than 10,000 active and retired state, municipal, and private sector employees, announces election of a new president. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees unanimously appointed Michael McDonald to the position this week, following the recent passing of J. Michael Downey.
Locally, James Vadenais serves as president of Local 937.
The new agreement with the town of North Smithfield is retroactive to July 1 and will run through June 30 of 2027.
“We had questions and we received the answers,” said Councilor Paulette Hamilton on Monday, prior to her motion for approval.
The contract also includes an increase to the wage differential for second and third shift dispatchers of 10 cents per hour each, to 45 and 60 cents, respectively. Juneteenth was added to the list of paid holidays, and the loss of a grandchild was added to the list of occurrences for which employees receive five days bereavement.
Once this year’s increases are added in, the highest paid union employee in town, a foreman, will make $33.35 an hour for the remainder of the 2024 fiscal year. According to list provided to the council by Finance Director Antony St. Onge, the lowest paid, a part time dispatcher, will make $22.42 an hour.
Another big raise for poor performance. Every year I receive a tax bill with an error that always needs to be corrected. Just a lesson in finance if you give everyone a 3% plus raise then you have zero funds left to maintain infrastructure. Also note that a with a 3% raise you need to tack on additional pension contributions, matching taxes, and other costs. So the number is really .5% more than just the salary increase. I fail to see how you can fund a new police stations or a senior center when you keep increasing salaries to the almost the maximum 4% cap. Maybe I can get one of the political candidates to explain to me some of that non financial math on how the town can afford all of these expenditures. The only math I see is a large increase in taxes every year with no additional services and a decline in service quality.