Unalaska, AK – After a one-year stalemate, the City of Unalaska and the union representing its employees have finally agreed on a contract.

The Unalaska City Council will decide at tonight's meeting whether to ratify the agreement with the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302, which represents employees at City Hall and in the Public Works, Utilities and Parks Culture & Recreation Departments. At their meeting last week, local union members voted to approve the contract, which includes one significant concession to the city. Local 302 negotiator Carl Gamble declined to comment on the deal today.

The union had been negotiating for a 3 percent annual raise for employees who had been with the city ten years or longer, 1.5 percent more than what the city was prepared to offer. This was the major point of impasse in the contract negotiations, which went to mediation in April. The city ultimately won the battle--the new contract includes a 1.5 percent raise for senior employees.

The union did win a concession from the city on employee health insurance, for which the city administration was seeking a $100-a-month copay from employees. By the terms of the new contract they won't have to pay that, and any future increases would be determined by more negotiations.

Those provisions will be included in a new contract for PCR staffers, who had broken with the rest of the unionized city employees last month by voting to accept a contract offered by the city that would have required them to pay the monthly insurance fee.