Sanitation Districts Update: CAPE Technical Support Bargaining Unit Members End Long-Running Contract Dispute with Sanitation Districts Management

In early August, CAPE’s Technical Support Bargaining Unit members held a re-vote over the Tentative Agreement (TA) their CAPE Bargaining Team reached with Districts’ management in May 2014 for a successor MOU for the Unit’s employees.

The members’ confidential ballots were tallied the morning of August 12th, and by a slim margin, the TA was ratified by CAPE members. The outcome of the re-vote was delivered to management representatives that same afternoon.

Technical Support Unit employees had been working with an expired wage and benefit contract MOU since July 2014. The new contract is expected to be implemented immediately and certain terms will go into effect as soon as September 1, 2015. 

CAPE’s Technical Support Unit Bargaining Team exercised every option available to achieve fair resolution of the employees’ dispute with the Sanitation Districts, including contentious and protracted negotiations, mediation, and fact-finding sessions. The CAPE Team stood up to Districts’ management when none of the other Bargaining Units would do so. Ultimately, when it became clear no more progress could be achieved in contract bargaining, per CAPE’s long-standing practice, CAPE allowed the members to decide for themselves by vote whether to settle the dispute. The new MOU will last through June 30, 2019.