City of Fulton Unit reaches new contract through unity, accountability
FULTON — Tom Schimpff has only been the City of Fulton Unit president for eight months, but in that time, he has been key to raising the level of accountability and unity of the city workforce to new heights.
This solidarity culminated in an impressive speech to the city’s common council, as well as a contract victory that will benefit workers for years to come.
“We started with morale, unity, and started getting members to work together as a team,” said Schimpff. “Then, we shifted to accountability.”
After months of tracking missed pickup calls and stepping up their game, Schimpff knew it was time to take action.
The general feeling was that the CSEA unit was a “little sibling” to the other city employee unions. After a six-month process of unifying the unit board and membership, Schimpff worked with his CSEA labor relations specialist to open their contract and gain substantial raises that made the city’s wages competitive with those in Oswego County, in which the city is located.
Schimpff noted that the catalyst to the change was the loss of plow drivers from seven drivers to only two.
Using the relationships he built with city council members, Schimpff explained his case.
“I told [councilors]that you can have as many police and firefighters as you want and give them all the money you want, but if those roads aren’t clear, you’re not getting out and your services aren’t getting done,” said Schimpff.
Schimpff said this helped highlight our union members’ true strength. While the members’ union power was always there, it had not previously been fully leveraged.
“We got $8 per hour in three years and gave up minimal [contract items], which is a milestone for our unit,” said Schimpff. “You could take our last 10 contracts and add them together and it doesn’t add up to that.”
Schimpff said the unit feels like it’s on top of the world right now, but he’s already looking toward 2027, when negotiations will begin.
— Nicholas Newcomb
Watch Tom Schimpff’s full speech to the City of Fulton Common Council: https://tinyurl.com/CSEA-Fulton
