Unalaska, AK – After the executive session of last night's meeting, the City Council voted unanimously to give the city's non-union employees their normal raises, in spite of continued disagreements over contracts with unionized staff.

The vote, which approved a normal 3 percent raise for the employees retroactive to July 1, was a break with recent city policy. The city's managerial employees, known as Title 3 employees, aren't unionized, but until now their benefits have been tied to those of the union employees. That meant that when union contract negotiations reached an impasse, Title 3 personnel had their annual raises postponed along with the union members. Mayor Shirley Marquardt said that wasn't fair.

"We need to hold [the Title 3 employees] harmless," she said. "They're not holding up the situation in any way."

Council member Juanita Lewis, who put forward the motion to go ahead with the raises, said the decision was made independent of the negotiations with the unions, and shouldn't be taken as an indication that those talks have stalled.

"Title 3 people deserved the raise, and they deserved it going back to that July time period," she said.

There's no sign that a breakthrough in the contract negotiations is coming anytime soon, however. The city is headed for arbitration with the public safety union, and is in the midst of another round of negotiations with the city employees' union this week. Representatives of that union were in meetings this afternoon and couldn't be reached for comment.

The vote also loosens restrictions on raises for City Manager Chris Hladick, who recently renewed his contract with the city under the agreement that he would not receive a merit-based pay increase until the Title 3 employees did.