Unalaska, AK – A mediation session between representatives of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 302 and the City of Unalaska is scheduled for April 21 in Anchorage, where both sides hope to break a ten-month impasse over a contract for the city's employees.

In a sign of how deeply relations have eroded between city and union representatives, City Manager Chris Hladick took the unusual step last week of sending a letter directly to the union's members in Unalaska, rather than addressing them only through their Anchorage-based representative, Carl Gamble. Hladick was out of town and couldn't be reached for comment today, and Gamble declined to comment, citing the sensitivity of the negotiations, as did local union officers. But Unalaska Mayor Shirley Marquardt called the letter the city's "last best offer."

"It's just been really unpleasant for everybody, the longer this goes on," she said.

Hladick's letter reiterates the city's most recent position, offering a 3 percent annual wage increase for employees who have been with the city less than 10 years, and a 1.5 percent annual increase for those who've worked there longer than that. In the letter, Hladick says the city will make those raises retroactive to June 2007, when the contract expired, but only if the union agrees to them by next Friday, before mediation begins.

The 3 percent raise for less senior employees represents a compromise for both sides. The city initially sought to keep wages flat, citing the rapid increase in public employee retirement expenses in recent years. The union originally was seeking a larger increase, arguing that 3 percent didn't keep up with the rise in cost of living in Anchorage, let alone in Unalaska.

The sticking point now is what veteran employees will receive. The union says 1.5 percent is far below what its members can live with.