Worcester

"The School Department could end up paying school bus drivers $600,000 as part of a settlement being negotiated with the drivers' union. The bus drivers lost their jobs when the schools decided to turn to a private bus company." Without a union, this settlement would have never happened and the drivers would have been left high and dry.

The city’s teachers’ union reached a tentative contract in which they would increase their health insurance contributions and change insurance plans in exchange for salary adjustments and maintaining positions.

Municipal unions seem to be lining up for new contracts, but the teachers’ union is still a no-go. Negotiators for the union, the Educational Association of Worcester, and school administration met for more than six hours Thursday but did not reach a deal and don’t have another session scheduled. That meeting came a week after a marathon session with the School Committee. The union has been without a contract for almost two years.

The union that represents ranking police officers yesterday ratified a new four-year collective bargaining agreement with the city, covering fiscal years 2010-2013. Sgt. Donald E. Cummings, president of Local 504, International Brotherhood of Police Officers, said the vote was 64-13. “The membership recognized that we had to work together with the city to overcome this financial crisis,” Sgt. Cummings said in a statement. “Through collective bargaining, we were able to craft an agreement that satisfied the needs of both sides without compromising public safety.”

The Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts, which represents more than 12,000 firefighters statewide, has endorsed state Rep. Geraldo Alicea, D-Charlton, for re-election in the 6th Worcester district special election on May 10.

St. Vincent Hospital nurses and managers are preparing for a nurses’ strike Friday, even as they head back to the negotiating table today for contract talks.

City councilors made it perfectly clear tonight that raising property taxes is not an option to restore some of the deep program and personnel cuts City Manager Michael V. O’Brien has made in his $518.6 million fiscal 2012 budget proposal.

The nurses union at St. Vincent Hospital has given the hospital notice that they intend to go on a one-day strike on May 6. Following a negotiation session today, the Massachusetts Nurses Association gave hospital management 10 days' notice of their intent to strike for one day.

Jack Donahue, business manager for Carpenters Local 107, said in an interview that Gateway Park, with its Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center and $12.5 million, 660-space parking garage, has been built strictly with union labor. He said O’Connell’s construction unit, which is a union shop, has committed to construct the new building with union carpenters, laborers and operating engineers.