Contract bargaining is foundational to our union’s fight for dignity and respect on the job. Being able to negotiate strong contracts that respond to the needs of membership is also built upon your input and active participation, which is where this survey comes in. With the economic contract negotiated and ratified by members in March 2023, we now enter unit bargaining. This next phase of negotiations involve the protections and standards that are most particular to your agencies and job areas.

Our newly formed Local 768 bargaining committee - made up of rank and file members representing nearly every title in our Local - has been hard at work gathering and organizing proposals submitted by members like yourself. This survey then is an opportunity for you to identify priorities for this next unit contract, which your bargaining committee will then use to build campaigns to advance these goals in the coming months.

Near the end of the survey, we also ask about your community connections. Why? Members are often the greatest resource for connecting the union to potential community allies. After all, we’re not just workers but members of our community, parents, people of faith, and belong to many kinds of organizations. By mapping our rich web of connections we can start to build a broader movement to win improvements for ourselves and our community.

In this process, our economic demands (those that will cost the City money) are limited to 0.5% of total pay (click here for details on what that means), so it is vital that we understand your priorities. Nonetheless, to win as much as possible, we will have to start doing things differently, fighting not just at the bargaining table but engaging coworkers at the workplace and leaning into our communities. This starts with attaining survey input from a strong majority of our members, which the committee is seeking to get a good sense of your priorities. Results will then be shared back with you, and then used to strategize our campaign going forward.

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