MSII Contract Update

Last week, we met with the Authority to discuss the draft contract MOU that was sent to us several weeks ago. Unfortunately, the meeting itself was delayed because of scheduled management vacations.

When we received the MOU, we were extremely disappointed. Several items that had been part of our negotiations and, in our opinion, had previously been agreed to were removed from the draft agreement. We went into last week’s meeting prepared to make the case for putting those provisions back into the MOU.

Unfortunately, the meeting was disappointing. On many of the issues we wanted restored, management refused to move from its current position. There are, however, a few remaining items that are still under discussion, and we expect to receive an updated MOU sometime this week.

Once again, scheduled vacations on the management side are likely to slow the process down. While we cannot control management’s calendar, we can control how hard we continue to push—and we will continue pushing.

We will stay on top of this process, continue pressing the Authority, and work to get the MSII contract wrapped up as soon as possible.

Philip Valenti, President