Labor Negotiations and Agreements

MEETING CANCELLED.

The City and Union were scheduled for the next bargaining session on December 5, 2025, but the Union has cancelled all negotiations until the new year in order to meet with the new administration.

The Union has previously proposed a 10% market adjustment for all positions plus a 3% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2026. That 13% total increase would cost an additional $450-550k for the year, and $1.5-2M over the course of their proposed 3-year contract. The City’s current counterproposal is a 2% COLA in 2026, representing an increase of $75-125k. The City has proposed a 4-year contract, with COLA’s in the remaining years at 1.5-2% based on CPI. Should the June-to-June CPI ever hit 5% or greater, all staff employed as of July 1 of that year would receive a $1,500 lump sum payment. The economic impact of the City’s counterproposal for the 4-year contract is estimated at $600-800k.

The current contract expires December 31, 2025, and has no provisions for COLA beyond 2025. The City reached out to the Union’s chief negotiator and offered to implement the proposed 2% COLA as of January 1, 2026, while negotiations continued into the new year. The City’s proposal to the Union stated that any agreements on a COLA for 2026 would not include retroactive pay to the beginning of the year due to the complexity of calculations and limited staff resources, while recognizing that there are many issues still open. The Union declined the offer to implement a 2% COLA for represented staff. Following discussions with the City Council and legal counsel, only non-represented employees will receive the 2% COLA on January 1, 2026.

The City also proposed that the Public Works bargaining unit be allowed to retain the Teamsters Pension Trust, and the Office Technical unit be allowed to vote on the proposed swap to the DCP option with the ability to receive the repayment plan as proposed that expires December 31, 2025. The Union is considering that proposal.

MEETING CANCELLED

MEETING CANCELLED

The City of Snohomish and Teamsters 763 met for the sixth bargaining session on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. The Union shared counter proposals and the City shared the teamsters pension trust clarification and alternate proposal:

• Teamsters Pension Trust_Clarification and Alt Proposal_11042025 PDF
• PW CBA Proposal DRAFT 3 11.4.25 PASSED PDF
• OT CBA Proposal Draft 3 11.4.25 PASSED PDF

The union cancelled the sessions for November 6 and 14 of 2025.

The parties jointly agreed to going to mediation on the Teamsters Pension item. Both parties remain committed to ongoing discussions.

We are scheduled to meet again on December 5, 2025.

The City of Snohomish and Teamsters 763 met for another bargaining session on Wednesday, October 1, 2025. The Union shared additional questions, presented information on the Teamsters pension, and the City clarified its proposal on the pension. We are scheduled to meet again on November 4, 2025.

The following documents were exchanged with City and union during this session:

• 401k_vs_WCTPT_Ten_Year_Analysis_2023 PDF
• Teamsters Pension Trust Replacement_Conditional Proposal_10.1.2025 PDF
• City of Snohomish Local 763 1.50 Rate 2022-2029PDF

Both parties remain committed to ongoing discussions.

The City of Snohomish and Teamsters 763 met for another bargaining session on September 16, 2025. This was a longer session, during which the City presented additional proposals for both the Public Works and Office Technical bargaining units. The Union reviewed the proposals and provided follow-up questions, with additional discussion to continue at the next session, we were scheduled to meet on October 1, 2025.

The following documents were shared with the Union during this session:

• City of Snohomish Meeting - 1.50 10-11-2023 New Unit PDF
• Snohomish-Public Works 2022-2025 CBA REDLINE_09.16.2025_updated PDF
• Snohomish-Office-Technical 2022-2025 CBA REDLINE_091625_Updated PDF
• Teamsters Pension Trust Replacement_Conditional Proposal_091625 PDF
• AWC Dental and Vision Proposal_091625 RP PDF

The Union raised membership concerns about preserving the Teamsters Pension. In response to the City's proposal to transition to a Defined Contribution Plan (DCP), the Union emphasized that many long-serving employees had planned their retirements based on the current agreed pension structure. The Union maintains that the Teamsters Pension provides consistent, lifetime benefits for Teamster retirees, whereas the DCP is subject to market fluctuations.

The City pointed out that not all members vest to the same benefits depending on how old they were and how long they have been with the city at the beginning of the current contract. The Union said they would provide additional information to the city on vesting criteria’s. The Union also stated that members unanimously supported maintaining the pension trust and that 100% of all members in good standing were in attendance at the meeting.

To ensure members are fully informed, representatives from Teamsters Dental, Vision, and Pension will attend the City’s Annual Benefits Fair on October 28, 2025. These representatives will be available to answer questions and provide materials related to members’ current benefits. A Teamsters Pension representative will be providing a full member presentation (date TBD) to explain retirement benefit comparisons and address questions.

The City has also confirmed that DRS representatives for DCP will be present at the Benefits Fair on October 28, 2025. Separately, DRS will be available for questions around DCP at the Carnegie on October 2, 2025.

Both parties remain committed to ongoing discussions.

From Mayor Linda Redmon:

"Dear Staff, 

I and HR Director Park just met with Chad Baker, Tammy Ayers, and Mary Keefe from Teamsters 763. They requested a meeting to discuss their concerns about the direction of negotiations, specifically the City’s desire to replace the Teamsters Pension Trust. I want you to know what I shared with them, and they are aware that I am sharing this with you and are copied on this email. 

• There was a lack of clarity during the last bargaining session on what the Teamsters Pension trust was, how it is managed, and how it would be impacting staff’s paychecks. 
• We’ve heard frustrations from current employees about the significant impact the mandatory contribution has on their personal finances and that they did not fully understand how it worked when they voted for it during the last collective bargaining process. Some have had to utilize the annual leave cash out to help cover expenses because of the $2-3,000 per year they weren’t expecting to have deducted from their paychecks.  
• We’ve heard from new employees and potential candidates that the additional $200-300/month taken out of their checks is a hardship.  
• Staff have asked if they could opt out or decrease the amount being contributed. This is not allowed based on the Trust rules. 
• To evaluate portability, the City has requested a list of other entities that have the Teamsters Trust. The Trust would not provide a list, and the union representative was also not able to get this information from the Trust. The Trust has been difficult to work with since the beginning. 
• Based on these experiences, we admit we made a mistake in going with the Teamsters Trust and are trying our best to correct our error as soon as possible. 
• Our proposal is not to take away a retirement benefit altogether, but to replace it with an option that provides more flexibility, control, and portability for staff, the Deferred Compensation Program, or DCP. The funds match by the City that we have proposed would be almost twice the annual amount we are currently contributing per employee. 
• Employees keep all the funds contributed by and on behalf of them into the DCP. The amounts contributed into the pension trust belong to the pension trust. Recently, many public pension trusts received federal bailouts because they were in danger of failing. Currently, the Teamsters Pension Trust is doing well, and this is not an issue at this time.
• With the DCP, an employee can control how much, or how little, they contribute based on personal needs. As personal needs change over time, DCP contributions can change, too. The contributions for the Trust require a minimum contribution per year, and as mentioned by Mary Keefe from the bargaining table on behalf of Teamsters, those minimum contributions can’t decrease and are expected to continue to increase. Increases require a majority vote of the members. 
• Our team also heard concerns from staff at the bargaining table about what leaving the Teamsters Pension Trust would mean for the funds already contributed. I fully understand that, and it was my first question when we discussed this. The City has requested that Teamsters suggest a solution/counter proposal to this issue, but they have refused to consider it. Our team is working on a proposal to specifically address this concern at the next negotiation session in a couple of weeks. 
• Our team wants you to be as well informed as possible about the options and why we have proposed this change. We have tried to get information in the past about how to determine what payouts and guarantees the Trust provides but the information has not been provided. Chad Baker said he would be working to get that information from the Trust. He also will be asking the Trust to provide a lunchtime presentation for staff, which we have supported. We will also try to have a presentation for staff from DRS on the DCP prior to your vote on the contract, and we are open to any questions you have about this.

My comparison of the plans, shared with the meeting attendees: 

I encourage all staff to review the Teamsters Pension Trust Replacement Proposal PDF that was shared after the last bargaining session, as well as these links about the Teamsters Pension and DCP: 

•  Frequently Asked Questions | The Western Conference of Teamsters Pension Trust 
• DCP - Deferred Compensation Program - Plan Page 
• DCP Savings Calculator - Department of Retirement Systems

We will continue to work through this process weighing the pros and cons of these options, and we want you to have the best information available to you to understand the what and why of the proposals."

The parties successfully completed a third session of bargaining on August 5, 2025. It was an in-depth session with the City providing redline proposals and the Union asked clarifying questions. The Union has already provided all of its proposals and attached are some of the City proposals in which additional discussions/proposals will need to continue as well as reviewing laws, regulations, best practices, economic factors, as well as the impacts on the employees/membership. We are mutually committed to transparency during this process and the Union intends reach out to the membership to answer questions. 

We continued to discuss some of the larger concepts that we want to collaboratively negotiate over including payroll, annual leave benefits, and aligning the two contracts on issues like flex schedules and alternate work weeks.

The union will be reaching out to the membership to answer questions. 

Following is a copy of the City’s proposal on the Teamsters Pension and for additional information on Deferred Compensation Program through the Department of Retirement Services take a look at their information here: DCP - Deferred Compensation Program - Plan Page:

• Teamsters Pension Trust Replacement Proposal 8.5.2025 PDF
• City Proposal and Response to Union Proposal_ 8.5.2025_to be shared PDF

Our next session is September 16, 2025.

The parties successfully completed a second session of bargaining on July 24, 2025. It was a short session and our first session exchanging proposals from the union and the City. Following is the union and City proposals in which additional discussions will need to continue as well as reviewing laws, regulations, best practices, and economic impacts:

• OT CBA Proposal 7.18.25 PDF
•  PW CBA Proposal 7.19.25 PDF
• Snohomish PW and OT Wage Tables 7.9.25 PDF
• City Proposal and Response to Union Proposal_ July 24 PDF

We are mutually committed to transparency during this process.  We continued to discuss some of the larger concepts that we want to collaboratively negotiate over including payroll issues, medical and leave benefits, and aligning the two contracts on issues like flex schedules and alternate work weeks. We will also be presenting the economics to Council members on July 29, 2025 during a closed session.

Our next session is August 5, 2025.

MEETING CANCELLED

The parties successfully agreed on a set of ground rules for bargaining including an agreement to issue joint update statements after each session along with copies of the proposals from that session.  We are mutually committed to transparency during this process.  We also discussed some of the larger concepts that we want to collaboratively negotiate over including payroll issues, medical and leave benefits, and aligning the two contracts on issues like flex schedules and alternate work weeks.

Our next session is July 3, 2025.