YOUNGSTOWN — City council will consider approving a three-year contract Wednesday with a new union that represents its garbage truck drivers.

Meanwhile, the city has a tentative agreement with its street department union.

The 10 truck drivers recently unionized. The city established its own garbage collection service about five years ago.

A tentative agreement is in place, with city council’s approval needed at its Wednesday meeting for the deal to be finalized.

The contract expires Dec. 31, 2022.

The hourly salary of the truck drivers is $15.65 to start, $15.80 after a year on the job and $16.05 after two years.

Union members will get a 1 percent pay raise in January 2021 and a 1 percent pay raise in January 2022.

After completing three years of full-time service with the city, union members will get longevity pay. That payment rate is $65 for each year workers are employed by the city up to the 25-year maximum that other union members receive. For example, someone with 10 years on the job would get a lump-sum payment of $650. The payments are made annually in December.

The contract includes a provision that doesn’t permit the union members to strike orparticipate in a “work stoppage or any other interruption of operations or services of the employer.” It also doesn’t permit the city to lock out union members.

Also like members of other unions, the truck drivers will pay 10 percent toward their health insurance premiums.

The truck drivers will be provided work uniforms at no cost to them. The city will also reimburse them $114 annually for the purchase of approved work boots. An employee can elect to forgo the boot allowance in a given year and then utilize that amount with the following year’s $114 reimbursement to purchase boots with the city paying $228. Also, the city will reimburse $325 annually to union members who require prescription safety glasses.

STREET DEPARTMENT

As for the city’s tentative agreement with its street department union, Teamsters Local 377, which represents about 50 workers at the department, is expected to vote on a deal this week, said Rich Sandberg, its president.

But city council will not consider it at Wednesday’s meeting because there isn’t enough time for its members to review the contract, said Dana Lantz, deputy law director.

If the union ratifies the deal, council could consider it at its March 4 meeting, Lantz said.

The two sides were headed to court after council rejected a purported contract with the union in October 2019.

The issue that was holding up a contract was the union wanted its members to have the right to have daily seniority rights when it came to taking jobs and using equipment while city officials said that was an inefficient way to run the department.

The issue has been resolved without daily bidding rights, but Sandberg and Lantz declined to discuss the details until after both sides approve the contract.

Sandberg said in October that the matter was going to be resolved in court. The union provided a copy of a proposal dated April 16, 2019, signed by Law Director Jeff Limbian, that read: “After the foreman (has) the daily assignments ready, employees will be called in to (pick) job and equipment for the day.”

While Limbian acknowledged he signed it, Lantz said it wasn’t an agreement. She also said the union sent the supposed contract documents to the wrong address and it didn’t get to city officials on a timely basis.

Pay increases haven’t been an issue. The union members will get a 1.5 percent raise this year and a 1 percent raise in 2021, which are the same increases the city has given other employee unions that have negotiated contracts for those years.