Union Ratifies Two-Year Pact In Third Vote

The city's largest public employees union voted last week to approve the same two-year contract it rejected in early August.

The contract, approved in balloting at the Comelia Avenue Nursing Home, provides public works employees, hospital orderlies, clerk typists, and other members of Local 195, Independent Public Employees Association, pay raises of nearly 10 per cent and increases in lump-sum longevity payments.

The 1150-member union--which originally ratified an identical contract in early July--voted a second time in August because some city workers covered by the contract were not informed of the vote or not allowed to cast ballots, James Cassidy, president of Local 195, said earlier this month.

There were no modifications made in the contract just approved, City Manager James L. Sullivan, said yesterday. "We weren't about to change our position," he said.

Much of the opposition to the contract came from young union members who would not benefit as much as others from the lump-sum increases, Cassidy said.

Workers will receive lump-sum payments of $450 after working five years for the city. Lump-sum payments will range up to $1650 for those having 25 years of service, up from a maximum of $900.

City and union representatives averted a threatened strike June 30, reaching tentative agreement on the pact six minutes before a union-imposed deadline on agreement.

Cassidy was unavailable for comment yesterday. His union represents 48 per cent of the city's work force.