Contract enforcement
Industry Wide Agreement Contract Summary | July 1, 2026 – June 30, 2034
It’s not enough to make management sign a new agreement, our union needs to have the tools to enforce it and make the employer live up to their end of the deal.
Our union’s Business Agents and Delegates are already exceptional at enforcing the rights under our contract. This new agreement includes improvements to the grievance and arbitration provision that will make contract enforcement even more effective and give us more power to take on bad actors.
Increased penalties for willful violations of the contract
The IWA already includes a 15% penalty for employers who willfully violate the contract. Under the new agreement, if the arbitrator finds that an employer willfully underpays members on 3 separate occasions, that penalty increases to 25%. This will both compensate you and discourage bad employers from committing wage theft in the future.
Challenging decisions of the arbitrator
Because arbitration decisions are not self-enforcing, if an employer fails to comply with an arbitrator’s award, then the union must pursue time consuming and costly legal proceedings in court. This new contract provision requires that the employer to pay the union’s attorney’s fees and related costs in the event it fails to comply with an arbitrator’s decision and the court rules in favor of the union. This will discourage employers from tying up arbitration decisions in court and delaying us from getting justice for workers whose rights were violated.
Broader authority for the arbitrator to remedy violations
The new agreement increases the arbitrator’s authority and power to craft remedies and award monetary relief in order to prevent bad employers from violating the contract and abusing your rights.
Increased right to information
The new agreement makes it clear that the union is entitled to any information we need to investigate, find, and fix contract violations.
Expedited arbitration for discrimination claims
The new agreement permits the union or employer to submit any claims of discrimination or discipline relating to discrimination claims to expedited arbitration.
Paystub information
Under the new agreement, the employers will be required to expand the information that is displayed on your paystubs to include information such as overtime, premium pay, extra pay, night shift differential, gratuities, and paid time off, as well as information about remaining earned vacation, sick and personal time.