A group of blue-collar city workers employed by the city of Titusville on Florida’s Space Coast voted 79 to 12 in late April to form a new union with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 606, after seeing their former union decertified by the state last year.
According to the Talk of Titusville, a local news site, morale in the city’s public works workforce has been low, driving vacancies in the department. Proposals from their new union, however, aim to help address some employee grievances. The union reportedly is seeking a 6 percent wage increase, a 6 percent cost-of-living increase and inclusion in the city’s 401(k) retirement plan.
Todd Provost, the union’s business manager, declined to comment for this story, citing upcoming contract negotiations that he didn’t wish to disturb. He previously toldOrlando Weekly, after the workers first began organizing with the IBEW last year, that unionizing “gives them a voice without the fear of retaliation.”
His union, based in Orlando, represents nearly 2,000 workers, including electrical maintenance workers at Disney World…