Borough Updates Employee Union Contract

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

While the City of Kodiak works out what unionization will look like for city employees, the Kodiak Island Borough has been part of a union for many years.

The current borough contract expires later in December and it’s time for a new collective bargaining agreement. That’s something Borough Manager Michael Powers says has now been drafted after a series of discussions between borough staff and representatives from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547.

“The one topic that everyone always wants to know about and talk about is wages, and so over the next three years, employees will be getting a 2.5 percent pay increase. 1 percent starting January 1 of 2017, 1 percent the following year, a half percent the year after that.”

The borough and IBEW also implemented a pay increase three years ago at the last contract re-write.

The Kodiak Island Borough Assembly will review the agreement at its regular meeting tomorrow tonight and decide whether it should go forward.