The unit of roughly 100 trades workers from more than a dozen different unions bargain jointly as the District Council of Unions (DCU). The maintenance and construction crew had been working under a management-implemented contract since June 11. That contract contained no wage increases and higher out-of-pocket health insurance costs; it eliminated retiree health insurance altogether, stripped workers of two holidays, and it had no expiration date.

In April, DCU members rejected the district’s implemented proposal by a margin of 80 percent, and by a similar margin authorized a strike — the first such authorization in DCU history. After a failed attempt at mediation and a 30-day “cooling off” period, the district implemented its own terms.

As union officials pondered their next step, some of the workers attended a July 9 school board meeting to let school officials know what was happening.

“We got some help from some school board members to break through this mess,” said Jerry Moss, chief spokesman for the DCU and a business rep for Plumbers and Fitters Local 290. “The school board pushed the district to talk to us and to come up with something reasonable,” he said.

Before the implemented contract, DCU members were working under a contract that expired Jan. 1, 2006. That contract had also been unilaterally implemented by the school district and contained no wage increases.

“Our people haven’t had a raise in a long, long time,” Moss said.

Following the contract implementation June 11, Moss said discussions were held “off line.” The two sides came up with a package that members narrowly accepted. Had they rejected the contract, a 10-day notice to strike would have moved forward.

The four-year contract provides all DCU members a lump-sum payment of $1,000 in October 2007 and another check for $1,120 in January 2008.

Wages will increase 1 percent in January 2009 and 2 percent in January 2010. Pay scales range from $18 to about $30 an hour, depending on the craft.

Employer-paid health insurance premiums will be capped at $779 a month, which means that out-of-pocket costs could increase, depending on which health plan a worker chooses. The previous cap was $764.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day was added as a holiday.

The biggest takeaway, Moss said, was elimination of the employer-paid retiree health insurance plan. That will sunset on June 30, 2014.

DCU members with 15 years’ service can retire at age 60 and be covered under the school district’s health insurance plan for five years — or until they become eligible for Medicare.

Moss estimates that one-third of the maintenance crew will retire in the next two years. A skilled workforce that once numbered 400 to 500 members, it’s now a skeleton crew employed primarily to do emergency repairs.

The DCU is comprised of Plumb-ers and Fitters Local 290, Teamsters, Machinists District Lodge 24, Sheet Metal Workers Local 16, Electrical Workers Local 48, Glaziers Local 740. Laborers Local 296, Cement Masons Local 555, Bricklayers Local 1, Painters Local 10, Floor Coverers Local 1236, Roofers Local 49, Plasterers Local 82 and Carpenters.