Oklahoma – City Employees Win First Contract

Moore City, Oklahoma

About 90 employees of the city of Moore, members of Local 2406, won a historic first contract this fall highlighted by a 4.34 percent wage hike, preservation of seniority and a set schedule of paid holidays.

“It has been a very long road for all of us, but we are very pleased with the outcome,” says William Bryles, the local’s president. “We organized a union to have a voice in decisions about our jobs and our community, and this contract provides that voice.”

The employees of Moore — along with those of Enid, Lawton, Bartlesville and Muskogee — organized with AFSCME after workers won collective bargaining rights when a 2003 law passed requiring cities of 35,000 people or more to recognize non-uniformed workers’ unions. Although the statute was challenged, the state Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that the law is constitutional. Of the five newly organized cities, Moore’s employees are the first to negotiate and ratify a contract. Others are expected to follow soon.