City Unions, Mayor, Alders to March in Unity to Special Council Meeting

Representatives of the city's 12 labor unions will join Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, members of the Common Council and non-represented employees at 5:45 p.m. in front of the City County Building to march together to the special meeting of the Council tonight at 6:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Studio at Overture. Mayor Cieslewicz called a special meeting of the Council to extend several of the City's collective bargaining agreements to the end of 2012 in order to ensure that all employees can continue to receive current pension and health benefits for the next two years. Currently, some collective bargaining agreements run through 2011, others run through 2012 and some unions do not yet have an agreement in place. The goal of tonight's Council agenda is to treat all City employees equally in terms of pay increases and benefits for the next two years. That won't be possible if the contracts are adopted after Governor Walker's anti-collective bargaining provisions are enacted. "We are marching together in unity," Cieslewicz said. "This shows what can happen when the executive and the legislative branches of government work together with both union and non-union employees to protect their rights and benefits. This is the tradition of collective bargaining in Wisconsin." WHO: City Labor Unions Non-represented employees Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and City Managers Common Council Members WHAT: March to the Special Council Meeting at the Overture Center for the Arts WHEN: 5:45pm Thursday, February 17, 2011 WHERE: City County Building 210 Martin Luther King Blvd.