Updates for October 2025
The month of October was completely focused on bargaining. Four sessions occurred during October, and several items we able to get to the point of a Tentative Agreement.
Here are the articles both sides decided did not need any changes:
Article 03: Management Rights
Article 04: Work Rule and Policies
Article 05: No Strike/No Lockout
Article 06: Labor-Management Committee
Article 10: Notice of Resignation
Article 13: Personnel Files
Article 14: Mileage Reimbursement
Article 23: Assault Leave
Here are the articles we were able to reach a Tentative Agreement on:
Article 01: Union Recognition
Article 07: Grievance Procedure
Article 25: Emergency/Inclement Weather
Article 28: Duration & Conflict & Modification
What is a tentative agreement? What does it mean to “TA” an article?
Tentative agreements (TAs) are articles of our Union Contract that both sides of the bargaining table have signed off on after negotiating their content. If there are no changes to an article, no one from either negotiating team needs to sign anything.
I do not know what these articles say, how am I to know if I agree with them?The reason these agreements are tentative, is because what our Union Contract says is up to all of us, not just the bargaining committee. After we reach TAs on all included articles, all WPLU members will have the opportunity to read the Contract in full, then vote on whether it is good to ratify in its current form.
While this is happening, the Board of Trustees will also review the Contract and vote on ratification. If either we or the Board reject its ratification, both teams will go back to the table and resume bargaining, until a majority of both WPLU and the Board votes in favor of the second Contract.
We know this is an esoteric process and is very new to many of us, so please let us know if you have any questions! If you can’t catch someone in-person, or prefer a written back-and-forth, you can always email your questions to wplunited@gmail.com.
Posted on November 7th, 2025