Teamster Bargaining Committee members in King County MLA negotiations.

Our Coalition of Unions continued negotiations with the County yesterday over a Master Labor Agreement (MLA) here at our Teamsters Union hall in Tukwila.

The idea behind the MLA is to consolidate language from the various contracts countywide into one general agreement that will apply to all Unions in the Coalition that vote to accept the MLA.

You can read more about the purpose and process for MLA bargaining here.

In previous sessions, our Coalition broke into sub-committees to develop counterproposals based on specific topics that the County presented where we felt there could be some shared interests. We had sub-committees for vacation leave, other kinds of leave (bereavement, organ donor, donated, etc.), holidays and eligibility, reclassification, special duty, and working out of classification.

In yesterday’s negotiations, rank-and-file union members presented the proposals to the County that they had developed in their sub-committees and vetted through the Coalition. 

Lisa Longdon, one of our Bargaining Committee Members representing Teamsters in the Professional, Technical, and Administrative Support bargaining unit, presented on the topic of reclassification: “Members were able to tell their stories of situations that they’ve experienced and it was an eye opener to management,” said Sister Longdon.

Our presentations by sub-committee took the better part of the morning. Afterwards, the County indicated that they wanted to break early for the day.  After some discussion with Union leadership, the County agreed to continue working and ultimately presented a counterproposal on leave in the afternoon. 

We will be meeting again with the County next Thursday, June 15 at the Teamsters Union hall where the County will be giving us their full counterproposal. If you have questions, please contact your Bargaining Committee Member or your Union Representative.

For more news about what’s happening at our Union, please attend our upcoming quarterly General Membership Meeting starting at 7pm on June 15. Join us for dinner starting at 5:30pm.

Thank you for your service to the residents of King County.