Muncie council tables retroactive raise approval amid ongoing union contract negotiations

The Muncie City Council has tabled the mayor’s ask to retroactively approve raises he gave to city employees in May.  As IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports, council members are worried about how it could interfere with a union contract negotiation.

Muncie officials say in May, Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour used a law in the Indiana Code to begin giving all full-time city workers – except for elected officials – a 10 percent raise.  Those raises spent above what a yearly city ordinance setting maximum salaries authorized.  Ridenour’s administration first came to the city council for retroactive approval last month, in June.

The ordinance was introduced and was on its second reading Monday night.

But council members voted to table it at the request of Nate Burgess.  He’s the president of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“It was pretty simple.  Give us a 2024 contract and we’ll sign off on it.  We was told that we didn’t need a contract for this year.”

Burgess says city employees under that union have been working without a contract with the city since January, though the union and the city started negotiating last July.

For the second month in a row, Muncie Mayor Dan Ridenour did not speak at the council meeting about the raise ordinance.  Deputy city controller Matt Wagley says contract negotiations with the city workers union were still happening when police and fire employees got a similar 10 percent raise in January.

“And if the contract had been approved, we would have already had this salary ordinance in place.  But it hasn’t and, you know, here we are.”

The mayor approved raises in May, but Burgess says contract negotiations are still going on.

“We do have a meeting on [July] 9.  But as far as I’m concerned, it’s to pick an arbitrator.”

Council members who spoke again agreed that the 10 percent raise for city employees is good, but the process on how it was done – including without a union contract in place – is what is concerning.

Wright and Wagley say if the raises aren’t approved by the city council, the administration has no plans to ask for that money to be returned by employees.

An ordinance can be tabled for several months before it dies from inaction.

Stephanie Wiechmann is our Managing Editor and “All Things Considered” Host.  Contact her at slwiechmann@bsu.edu.