YOUNGSTOWN — City council approved a three-year contract with a union representing garbage truck drivers that will see the hourly pay of its current members go from $15.65 to $16.05.

Also, the city’s street department union voted Wednesday in favor of a new contract with council planning to ratify it March 4.

The deal with the 10 garbage truck drivers is the first contract for the union. Council voted Wednesday to approve that contract, which expires Dec. 31, 2022.

The 10 current union members have been paid $15.65 an hour and haven’t received a raise since the city established its own garbage collection service four years ago.

The members were given a 1 percent raise retroactive to 2019 and a 1.5 percent salary increase for this year bringing their hourly wage to $16.05. The raises are the same given to other city employees last year and this year, said Kyle Miasek, interim finance director.

Any employees hired as garbage truck drivers this year will start at $15.65 an hour. It will take two years for new union members to get to the top of the pay scale.

The truck drivers will get a 1 percent salary increase in January 2021 and a 1 percent pay raise in January 2022.

Union members get longevity pay after completing three years of full-time service with the city. They get $65 for each year they’re employed by the city up to the 25-year maximum that all other union members receive. There are about two or three garbage truck drivers eligible for longevity pay, city officials said.

They will also get health insurance coverage with the union members paying 10 percent toward the premiums, like the other unions.

Also, the street department union approved a contract Wednesday. Council is expected to vote on the proposal at its March 4 meeting, said Law Director Jeff Limbian.

The contract calls for the 50 or so members of the street department union, Teamsters Local 377, to get a 1.5 percent pay raise this year and a 1 percent salary increase in 2021. But the raises weren’t the main issues for the union.

The union wanted its members to have the right to have daily seniority rights when it came to taking jobs and using equipment. City officials objected — saying it was an inefficient way to run the department.

The two sides came to a resolution for seasonal bidding rights that would happen a few times a year for jobs such as grass cutting, snow removal and patching potholes, said Kevin Flinn, the city’s buildings and grounds commissioner.

Also, the starting hourly salary for laborers with commercial driver’s licenses would increase from $10 to about $13 under the contract proposal, said Flinn.

The union had threatened in October 2019 to take the city to court after council rejected a purported contract that gave street department workers daily seniority rights.

dskolnick@tribtoday.com