Unit 14 Bargaining Update for Tuesday, July 16, 2019
Unit 14 Bargaining Team Focuses on Outdated Class Specifications in Proposal

On Tuesday, July 16, 2019, Local 1000’s Unit 14 bargaining team met with statennegotiators to push for a review of outdated class specifications for the state’s Graphic Designer series. 

The bargaining team explained to the state that a number of class specifications in Unit 14 haven’t been reviewed in decades. This period coincided with drastic changes in the graphic design field, driven primarily by Information Technology innovations. Unit 14 believes those developments need to be examined and incorporate any revisions into a revised set of class specifications strictly for graphic designers.

This is important not only for training and hiring purposes; it will also provide the state with a better picture of the skills that graphic designers must master in order to effectively perform their job. And this understanding is equally critical to ensuring fair compensation in a fast-changing occupation.

This bargaining session also saw Unit 14 “roll over” numerous proposals, which would preserve language from the existing contract. Robert Vega, Unit 14 Chair, said the bargaining session was productive. “We shared with the state the importance of up-to-date job specs to make sure that workers in our unit are fairly compensated for the skills they use on a day-to-day basis. And by the end of the session we felt like we had gotten our message across.”

Unit 14 returns to the bargaining table on Friday, July 26, 2019.