District approves AFSCME contract

 April 24, 2012

State College Area School District Board approves AFSCME Custodial, Maintenance, and Food Service Employee Collective Bargaining Agreement

The membership of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 83 ratified the AFSCME Collective Bargaining Agreement with Custodial, Maintenance and Food Service employees on April18, 2012. State College Area School District’s bargaining team recommended approval of this agreement to the Board of Directors on Monday, April 23, 2012,and it was unanimously approved at their regular board meeting. This agreement has the same terms for wages and health insurance as was approved with AFSCME's Bus Drivers on March 26, 2012.

The contract is made and agreed to on April 23, 2012, but is effective retroactive to July 1, 2011, as the employees had been working under the terms of the previous contract since that time. The agreement remains in effect until June 30, 2016.

Important components in the new agreement include key changes in the health care plan, now offering members two options for healthcare coverage. The plan choice and single or multi-party coverage will dictate the cost of the plans for each employee, all based on a percentage of the employee’s salary. Another component in the agreement are the wage increases.The current year (2011-12) reflects a 0% increase, as a wage freeze was already agreed to. For 2012-13, there will be a 3.5% wage increase (which is coupled with a jump from $25/month monthly co-premium payments for current health plan to 3% of salary monthly co-premium for Plan A for those choosing that plan). In years 2013-14 through 2015-16, the wage increase will be equal to the Act 1index with a minimum increase of 1.7% and a maximum increase of 3.25%. The District and Union believe this to be a fair agreement that reflects the current economic situation.

The complete agreement can be found on the district website at www.scasd.org