Municipal employee wage increases and other changes will cost Wrangell close to half-a-million dollars over three years.
That includes terms of a collective bargaining agreement accepted earlier this month and similar changes for non-union employees approved this week.
The Wrangell Assembly OK’d two resolutions at its Tuesday regular meeting, approving changes for both groups.
Finance Director Lee Burgess said he couldn’t provide precise figures because of several factors. They include retirements and changes in the number of people covered by insurance.
“I estimate that the total annual cost of both the collective bargaining agreement that was approved at the last meeting and this resolution that is before you will be approximately $150,000 borough-wide per year,” he told the Assembly.
Two-thirds of the cost will go to Wrangell’s 35 non-union staffers. The other third goes to the 24 employees represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
Burgess said the money will come out of the borough’s general fund, as well as enterprise funds for departments such as utilities and ports and harbors.
Union members went on strike June 22 after the Assembly imposed a contract the union had rejected. The strike ended when both sides agreed to return to the bargaining table.
Final terms included a 75-cents-per-hour, across-the-board wage increase. The table of entry-level and long-term employee wages also changed. Municipal workers are also paying a larger share of their health-insurance premiums.
