Unionized University Police officers ratified Monday a new three-year contract with GW, following multiple rounds of tense talks at the bargaining table.
The deal, approved 41-1, comes about two weeks after an overwhelming majority of officers in the International Union, Security, Police, Fire Professionals of America shot down an initial contract.
Officers had planned to picket outside their headquarters at the Woodhull House – still working scheduled shifts but forming a line and handing out literature during personal time – if the most recent negotiations failed.
In a win for the union, the new agreement negotiated Thursday and Friday a rise in wages for night differentials – or pay for work between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. – from an extra 75 cents per hour to 85 cents per hour for the first year of the contract. Union leaders said the pay stood at the 75-cent rate for more than 15 years.
“It was by far the very best contract we could’ve gotten. It was the best contract we could’ve hoped for,” Darrin Carter, leader of the Local 294 branch of the union UPD officers fall under, said.
UPD fired Carter in June for absences without leave, but he remains the head of the local branch while the union arbitrates his dismissal. A decision on his status will be determined in late March.
The contract provides a 3 percent wage hike for the first year and opens up negotiations for the later two years, similar to the last deal, Guy Thomas, one of the union’s national directors, said.
That increase raises the hourly pay for officers to about $22.05 per hour, still 34 cents lower than the national hourly rate.
At GW, security patrol officers earn about $42,000 annually, Carter said. The national average annual pay for police patrol officers at colleges and universities stands at about $46,560, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics published in May 2010.
It also includes a provision for supervisors to be drafted first in emergency cases, rather than canceling officers’ approved leave – a source of contention with the contract vetoed earlier this month.
“The University is pleased that the bargaining unit ratified the collective bargaining agreement supported by their negotiating team,” the University said in a statement provided by the Office of Media Relations Monday. “We look forward to working with the bargaining unit and the union on our continuing efforts to provide for the safety and security of the university community.”
