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City of Hudson signs four-year pact with CSEA

Sep 29, 2022 1:00 am

Mary Dempsey is reporting for Columbia-Greene Media that the Hudson Common Council has approved a new four-year contract with the Civil Service Employees Association that runs from 2022 to 2025, which includes a $1,500 signing bonus for each union employee. The previous contract expired on December 31, 2021. The Common Council unanimously approved the pact at its Sept. 20 meeting. “We were in negotiations for four months,” Mayor Kamal Johnson said. “It was an easy contract to go through and everything worked out fine. The CSEA members make up the bulk of city employees.” Union members will receive a retroactive 2.5 percent pay raise for 2022, effective January 1; a 3.25 percent increase in 2023; a 3 percent raise in 2024; and a 2.5 percent increase in 2025. The retroactive increases will be paid for by a contingency fund the city set up, as well as money from the municipal fund balance. This is the first contract to include a signing bonus in the past 15 years. Council President Thomas DePietro said, “It’s more of a retention bonus. We’ve had a significant number of people leaving.” Under the agreement, city employees who opt out of the municipal health insurance plan will get increase from $3,500 to $5,000. “The increase is in line with the increase in the cost of our health insurance plan,” DePietro said. They, the employees who opt out, are saving the city a lot of money, he said. The agreement also makes changes in the holidays the city acknowledges, adding Juneteenth, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the day after Thanksgiving and removing Lincoln’s Birthday. “I like to think we are a pro-union city and we value our city employees,” DePietro said. Note: DePietro is a WGXC volunteer on-air host. Read the full story at HudsonValley360 [dot] com.

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