Contract Ratification: A Message from the President
On Friday, February 13, the DEA’s new collective bargaining agreement was ratified by the membership with 59.2% voting yes and 40.8% voting to reject. The count was conducted and certified by Election Services Solutions and the results were as follows:
5,107 total ballots were mailed out and 2,948 were returned;
3 ballots were invalidated for a total of 2,945 valid votes;
And 1,743 voted to accept, and 1,202 voted to reject, for a ratification percentage of 59.2% to 40.8%.
Now that the new agreement has been ratified, the DEA will work with the Office of Labor Relations to incorporate expeditiously the new raises and the retroactivity into our paychecks. Members will receive an immediate 3% increase in salary retroactive to October 1st, 2012 with an additional 1% increase in December of this year. Once we have a targeted pay-date, the DEA will notify the membership. The terminal leave lump sum option is effective immediately for those members expecting to retire in the near future.
The DEA is the seventh out of the eight unions in the Uniformed Supervisory Coalition to ratify this agreement. The last Union to ratify is the Lieutenants Benevolent Association. The LBA is expected to count their ballots on Tuesday, February 17th.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our members who participated in the contract ratification process.
Michael J. Palladino, President
