Billings City Council approves union contract for city employees

Monday night, the Billings City Council approved the contract agreement between the City of Billings and the Teamsters Union Local 190.

“It was a unanimous decision, so 11-0,” said Assistant City Administrator Kevin Iffland on Tuesday.

Employees will see pay based on the city’s new market base pay system in the first year of the new contract.

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“We hadn't changed or reset our pay matrix since 1994,” Iffland said.

Employees will then see a cost-of-living adjustment increase in the second and third years of the contract, and all employees hired before July 1, 2024, will retain longevity pay.

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“There are 68 classifications within our contract. So it is really, really difficult to try and address everybody's concerns,” said Jim Soumas, the Teamsters' secretary-treasurer. “In the negotiation process, you don’t get everything that you want. Either side. So there is give and take.”

At the end of Monday night’s city council meeting, council member Bill Kennedy addressed the budget and employee pay asking for more transparency and all salaries to be published in budgets.

In Kennedy's initiative, he stated: "Currently the upper 20 directors and assistant directors were given a substantial raise from a salary study and tweaked by HR and city administrator. The structure was not brought before the council and only until labor negotiations were the council members aware."

“So in September, we'll be bringing that, you know back to City Council with you know, here's our pay philosophy for the city of Billings,” Iffland said.