A link to the Tentative Agreement folder is available here. All Tentative Agreements are also available in list view under the "Bargaining Information" dropdown menu on the website.

Hello PERUvians! We have reached a tentative agreement on our PERU contract!!! Full bargaining update and ratification info to come after the team has had some sleep, but here are some of the core economics; 4% COLA first year, COLA tied to the State contract with a floor of 3% and ceiling of 6% second year Salary selectives (list to come) A one-time inflation bonus of $1,700 + $800 bridge payment which can be taken with the inflation bonus, or when payroll changes over beginning of next year Workgroup to establish Employee Benefit Hardship Fund (previously proposed as the Womxn of Color Caucus Fund) And MUCH MORE!!! Please stay tuned! We want to thank every single PERUvian who supported us, we could NOT have gotten this tentative agreement without you all. In Unity, PERU Bargaining Team

Fellow PERUvians, It is coming down to the wire. On Thursday, your PERU bargaining team met with management for a marathon, 18-hour bargaining session. While there was some progress made towards an agreement, we are still not in agreement on the issues PERUvians have identified as their key priorities: strong COLAs, pay equity, and winning an antiracist contract. Our next meeting with management is this coming Monday morning at 11 am. (PERUvians can observe at this link.) If we are going to move management to agree with our union’s priorities, we will need to show them that we are united and ready to do whatever it takes to win a contract that prioritizes equity and lifts up the lowest wage workers among us. This is why we are calling on all PERUvians to sign this strike pledge. If you have additional questions about where things stand in bargaining and why we are asking our coworkers to take this step, please…

Fellow PERUvians, On the morning of Monday, July 11, our bargaining team met with management for a short negotiating session. At this meeting, management gave us an economic package proposal with only the most incremental movement on one of PERUvians most important issues: our COLA. Management’s proposal for COLAs is now 3.5% effective August 1 of this year, and 3.25% effective October 1, 2023. They also proposed an additional $200 to their one-time ‘inflation bonus.’ Our team didn’t pass any proposals at this session as many of the issues were still in management’s court. After receiving managment’s proposal, our team immediately broke into caucus to work on our response. (Huge thank you to all PERUvians who were able to join throughout the day to help with that process and share your thoughts. Also, shout out to retired PERUvian Andy Boeger for working on economic data with us!) Our next meeting with management is this Thursday at 9 am. As always,…

Fellow PERUvians, On Thursday, July 7, our PERU bargaining team met with management for one of our most crucial sessions yet. During this session, we proposed an economic package to management that included several of our key priorities, including Article 15 (equity) and Article 18 (compensation). We also gave them a proposal on Safety and Health. Management responded to our package from the last session with a package proposal of their own, which our bargaining team is currently evaluating. (Keep reading below for details on the proposals that were passed.) Management continued to reiterate their desire to finish negotiations quickly, and near the end of the session informed us they needed to caucus before coming back with an important message. Anticipating that management would prematurely declare impasse or otherwise attempt to pressure the bargaining team to give up on priorities, our team texted PERUvians last minute during the late night caucus, asking them to join us in meeting with management.…

Dear PERU,   On Friday, July 1, our PERU bargaining team met with management to deliver our economic proposal and to receive management’s counter on our Article 15 proposal. At this session, our bargaining team was joined by a majority of PERU in a show of support for our union’s bargaining priorities and for winning a just, equitable contract. Thank you to everyone who showed up, we cannot truly express how much your presence rattled management and emboldened our team. The vast majority of folks stayed until towards the very end, on a Friday before a holiday weekend no less.    At this session, we gave management a new proposal on wages (7.75% COLA effective July 1 of this year, and 3-6% COLA based on CPI next year) as well as a proposal dealing with car allowances. Management responded to our package proposal from last session, where they made some movement to address our concerns about layoff language and transfer…

Fellow PERUvians, Despite the fact that inflation is raging at historically high levels and PERU members are feeling the value of their paychecks shrink with each passing day, management offered an economic package yesterday that included zero movement on COLAs. Furthermore, management had the audacity to claim that MARs were significantly overpaid and therefore didn’t feel it was appropriate to accept our proposal of salary selectives for MAC workers–we strongly disagree with the accuracy of their claim. Meanwhile, our team offered proposals on pay equity, holidays, differentials, and a package of proposals that would resolve several of the outstanding issues still on the table, including going back to current contract language on layoffs and transfers. (Keep reading below for details on both management and union proposals.) Because PERU members are all dedicated unionists, we know that the power of our union comes from the strength, commitment, and unity of its membership. Our management knows this too. If we are going…

Hello PERUvians! On Friday, June 24, our PERU bargaining team met with management for one of the most important bargaining sessions yet. In this meeting, we agreed to TA 10 articles and LOAs and passed some of PERU’s highest priority articles dealing with compensation and antiracism. (Keep reading below for details on the agreements and proposals.) As we get deeper into this bargaining process and get closer to the point where we need to make tough choices as a union, your PERU Bargaining Team needs to hear from you about what you think our union’s priorities should be. Please take a moment to fill out this short survey so we can better understand the bargaining unit’s needs and priorities at the current moment. Please complete this survey no later than 5 pm Monday, June 27, so that your answers can help guide us in our next bargaining session on Tuesday, June 28. In solidarity,   Your PERU Bargaining Team  …

On Tuesday, June 14, the PERU and management bargaining teams met for our ninth bargaining session. While we did not reach any Tentative Agreements, we exchanged proposals on the following topics: Our PERU bargaining team made the following proposals: Article 6–Recognition PERU is proposing to include MLDP and temporary workers in our Bargaining Unit. We withdrew our proposed language to represent Contract Specialists. Article 26–Sick Leave PERU is proposing parity between exempt and non-exempt staff for sick leave accrual. Currently, exempt staff accrue sick time at a rate of 1.25 day per month, while non-exempt staff accrue only 1 day per month. Our proposal addresses a long-standing inequity in our contract. Article 27–Paid Leave We have proposed that workers can donate sick leave to coworkers taking parental leave–management has expressed agreement with this concept We are proposing that workers are allowed to use bereavement leave for each instance of a death in the family, not a hard cap of six…

On Tuesday, June 7, 2022, our PERU bargaining team met with management for our eighth bargaining session. While we are starting to make progress in several areas, we still have a lot of distance between us on most of our union’s top priorities. Our bargaining team made proposals on Article 19 (Overtime and Call Back for Non-Exempt Staff), Article 24 (Worker Enhancement Benefits), and a package of Article 47 (Safety and Health) and a LOA focused on keeping staff safe from COVID-19. As a part of our proposal on Article 24, we proposed improvements that would allow more staff to access educational and career development opportunities—a key part of winning an equitable contract. Management’s team made proposals or counter proposals on Article 46 (Member Feedback and Complaint Procedure), Article 47 (Safety and Health), Article 55 (Working Remotely), Article 17 (Lunch Breaks & Rest Periods), Article 43 (Personnel Records), a new LOA dealing with PERU staff assigned to SEIU 503 trusts,…

At our 5/25 PERU membership meeting, participants elected bargaining team members Robin Fisher, Hawa Abdullahi, Emily Gothard and Aaron Giesa. They will be replacing outgoing Doug Geisler, Jesse Burrows and Arianna Avena. Congratulations and thank you from all PERUvians to our past and present barg team members. On Tuesday 5/24 we met with Management for our 7th negotiation session, where we came to tentative agreements (TAs) on three articles: Article 8 - Dues Deductions and New Employee Orientations, Article 14 - Labor Management Committee, and Article 28 - Parental Leave. The improvements we agreed to in Article 28 are especially significant: we agreed to increase paid parental leave from 4 to 6 weeks for all workers with at least 90 days of service and expanded the ability of workers with children younger than six months to participate in work functions remotely. In addition to the TAs we reached, our union bargaining team made proposals on the following articles: ● Article…

To fill vacancies on the Bargaining Team, PERU Council is opening nominations for 4 positions on the Bargaining Team. Please email nominations to both members of our Election Committee--Maria Luisa (Chuckles.2684@gmail.com ) and Nina (nina.freelander@gmail.com ) by Monday, May 23rd at 11:59pm. We will be voting at our next general membership meeting on Wednesday, May 25th. 6-7:30pm. We will vote over zoom for: Two positions for at-large delegates (i.e., anyone from the bargaining unit) One position for a MAR delegate One position for a non-exempt delegate (i.e., a coworker who is eligible for overtime) The Bargaining Team meets 1-2 times per week - generally at night and on the weekends. Bargaining is scheduled to pick up after May 17 with meetings scheduled with management 3 times a month. Bargaining experience is not necessary. Our current team has coworkers from the following areas: OAs (1), BOT (1), Public Services (3), Comms (2) and ODD (1). Under the current ground rules, 12…

Last Tuesday we sat down once again with SEIU Management for bargaining. While we have made some progress, it has been limited. Thanks to everyone who showed up and observed bargaining   We presented packaged proposals around our priorities to provide clarity, the first package, titled “Anti-Racism and Equity,” is primarily a non-economic package consisting solely of initial proposals curated to highlight the important theme of anti-racism and equity in our contract fight. Details of specific articles in this package can be found on our website.    The second package, titled “Democratic Workplace,” consists of three initial proposals, four counter-proposals, agreeing to current contract language on Article 9- Bulletin Boards, and accepting some small housekeeping changes and allowing 60mins for NEOs in Article 8-Dues Deduction & NEO. More details on our counters below.   Management proposed two packages of their own. The first consisted of three counters and two requests for us to withdrawl our proposals on Article 46- Complaint…

Last Tuesday (4/26), PERU-CWA7901 met with representatives from SEIU 503’s management. First and foremost, we would like to thank the over 40 coworkers who joined us as observers!!! Management knows that we are willing to show up, hold them accountable, and fight for an equitable and anti-racist contract. Management came to the table with two packages of proposals. The first package included several counters (Articles 6, 8, 9, 14, 41, 51) and a request to withdraw our proposal on Article 5. Highlights include: Article 5: Personnel Management - We proposed that bargaining unit work stay in the Bargaining Unit and only be backfilled by managers for short periods of time; management disagrees Article 6:  Recognition - Management countered our proposal to reintegrate MLDPs back into our Bargaining Unit. We strongly believe MLDPs deserve to be recognized as coworkers and represented by our Union. Article 41: Layoff & Return - Management accepted our change regarding OFLA/FMLA impacting seniority in this new…

Yesterday, we once again sat down with management to go over initial proposals. We were disappointed and frustrated that more time was spent chastising us for a protected concerted action than was actually spent discussing our initial proposals. In fact, this session, management did not ask a single question on any one of our proposals. Most of the time was spent in caucus where, presumably, management was doing the work that we had done during our nights and weekends, off the clock and unpaid. Since the beginning of this bargaining cycle, the PERU Bargaining Team has been transparent about our main priority - equity in the form of an anti-racist contract. As shown by their initial proposals, we clearly have a fundamentally different understanding of what equity looks like in our workplace. It seems that equity, to management, includes removing “unjust and inequitable” from our grievance language, offering us COLAs that don’t keep up with inflation, and stripping our transfer…

The Bargaining Team has been working tirelessly to draft and pass very ambitious and transformative proposals; however, the struggle to realize these goals requires everyone’s active engagement. We need to continue building our power to ensure we win a strong, anti-racist contract that leaves no one behind. Management has not finished presenting their proposals as of Tuesday’s (3/29) bargaining session, but the Bargaining Team is already disappointed with management’s offers. Given the current inflation rate of about 7%, management’s proposal of a 3% cost of living adjustment (COLA) in 2022 and 2% in 2023 would amount to a pay cut for us all. There is a very sharp contrast between management’s extremely disrespectful pay proposals and our proposals for a better quality of life for all coworkers–especially for our BIPOC and LGBTQQIA2S+ Union siblings. The Bargaining Team finished presenting all of our proposals and has opened approximately 32 articles aimed at dramatically changing our quality of life. Some of these…

On 3.15, your PERU bargaining team met with management for the 3rd time, and utilized this session to introduce 10 economic and non-economic proposals, as well as to address our demand to bargain over reopening/mask mandates. Management did not have proposals to share this session, but said that they will have some prepared for our next session. Mask mandate: Management didn’t respond to our 10 proposals, but they did express opposition to bargain over reopening/mask mandates. Specifically, they stated that they believe they have already done what is necessary to monitor the situation and to keep workers safe. After taking a caucus and discussing further with our CWA leaders, we went back to the table and communicated that we are legally within our right to demand to bargain over this, and subsequently will present them with a new proposal concerning reopening/mask mandates in the coming weeks. Our 4th bargaining session is scheduled for Tuesday, March 29 from 12-4pm.