HOWELL — Following 16 months of negotiations, representatives of Howell and the Transport Workers Union Local 225 came to an agreement on a new contract on March 6.
The TWU represents 14 employers in Monmouth and Ocean counties. The union has 1,200 total members, including 125 individuals who are employed in Howell as building inspectors, engineering aides, administrative assistants, clerical employees, custodians and Department of Public Works employees.
The approved contract runs from Jan. 1, 2008, through Dec. 31, 2010.
Howell Township Manager Helene Schlegel said that under the terms of the new contract, the TWU received a 3 percent salary increase retroactive to Jan. 1, 2008.
In 2009, there will be no salary increase, members voted to eliminate the traditional insurance plan offered by the township, and unpaid furloughs were reduced from 12 to eight weeks, according to Schlegel.
Under stipulations in the contract, employees will contribute 1 percent of their base salary toward medical health benefits beginning Jan. 1, 2010.
Finally, the newest provision included in the contract is a donated leave time program.
According to Christopher Mikkelson, president of TWU Local 225, the donated leave time program allows employees to voluntarily donate portions of their earned sick and/or vacation time to other employees who have exhausted their own earned leave time and who are suffering from a catastrophic illness or injury that necessitates the prolonged absence from work by that employee.
This plan would allow an employee to collect wages if sickness or injury were to occur, he said.
Mikkelson described the contract negotiations as tough and exhausting, but said that at the end of the process all of the union’s jobs were preserved.
“The majority of our members realized we would have to take what was in the contract in order to keep our jobs,” Mikkelson said. “It feels good to get an agreement with no layoffs in Howell. We are always hopeful that every contract would get better.”
Mayor Robert Walsh described the task as arduous. In light of the current economy and its effect on the town’s finances, Walsh summed up the contract with the TWU as “fair.”