Middletown Township has negotiated new three-year collective bargaining agreements with Teamsters Local 107 and the Department of Public Works Association.
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The contracts, which run from 2025 to 2027, include 4 percent annual wage increases for employees in both unions. Additionally, the agreements transition workers to a health savings account funding arrangement for healthcare and increase employee contributions toward health insurance premiums.
“We’re happy to report that we successfully negotiated two collective bargaining agreements between the beginning of the fall and this evening,” Township Manager Stephanie Teoli Kuhls said at last month’s Middletown Township Board of Supervisors meeting.
She noted that negotiating on both contracts took place at the same time and helped align employee benefits across different groups within the township.
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“A bunch of other things that we work to get to have as many of our components of employee benefits to be similar across different employee groups. Negotiating the two of them at the same time was really helpful in that regard,” Teoli Kuhls said.
The Teamsters contract includes more significant changes, including reclassifying some employees and modifying provisions for the Middletown Township Department of Fire and Emergency Services’ firefighters and inspectors.
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Supervisors voted to approve a memorandum of agreement for both unions.
The township will now move forward with formalizing the contract language before the start of 2025.
In other business, the supervisors last month to authorize advertisement of an ordinance to establish compensation for future supervisors at $8,385 annually, which is up from the current $5,000.
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The increase follows a recent change in state law allowing higher pay for elected officials in townships of Middletown’s size.
Teoli Kuhls explained that current board members cannot vote to increase their own compensation, so any changes would only apply to supervisors elected in next year’s municipal election.
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Board Chairman Mike Ksiazek noted the supervisor pay has not been adjusted “for a very, very long time” and suggested the increase might encourage more residents to get involved in local government.
“Perhaps an increase in compensation might encourage other people to want to get more involved in their community and run for local office and participate like the five of us do,” Ksiazek said.
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