Unions urge Columbia council to adopt step pay plan, prioritize wages; council moves to closed session on negotiations

Representatives of three labor groups asked the Columbia City Council on Monday to direct staff to adopt and implement anniversary-based step pay increases and to prioritize wages in the next budget.

Don Weaver, speaking on behalf of the Columbia Police Officers Association, told council members the union seeks a 10-step pay plan that would give officers and sergeants predictable pay increases on their anniversary date. "Fix the step plan with automatic progress on the anniversary date," Weaver said, arguing the change would help attract and retain officers and reduce pay compression.

Why it matters: Council members and union negotiators said predictable step increases and market adjustments are central to recruitment and retention across multiple city departments. Union presenters warned that delays or freezes in wage adjustments would reintroduce pay compression the city has only recently begun to fix and could worsen staffing problems in police, fire, public works and transit.

At the meeting, union representatives described the bargaining positions they have submitted and the city's responses. Weaver said the police union and city met only once this bargaining cycle before unions requested an appearance before council; he said the union's 10-step proposal was rejected by the city and that, absent action, officers currently cannot advance steps except by leaving and later returning to the department.

Zach (union representative for Local 1055) told the council the city has delayed negotiations and asked to postpone financial talks so staff could gather more data. "If we wait till next year, that's 24 months to begin negotiations...that's far too long," Zach said, urging the council to "build your budget around your employees." He reported roughly eight current vacancies in his represented group and stressed that personnel costs are the city's largest expense.

Andrew Hutchinson, union representative and organizing director for Local 995, summarized his union's economic proposals — including cost-of-living adjustments plus step scales, expanded benefits and market adjustments for job classes the unions say were omitted from an earlier classification-and-compensation study. "The city is the only one of all of my negotiations this year that has offered a 0% cost of living adjustment," Hutchinson said. He also said about "35 or so" full-time represented employees make below $19 an hour and asked the council to address low pay for that small group.

Other specific requests included increasing sick-leave buyback from the current 50% to 75%, opening a 750 PPO plan and raising HSA contributions, subsidies or supports for employee childcare, restoring higher pay for weekend coverage that transportation staff say was reduced to pay for only the worked hour, and targeted market adjustments for hard-to-fill titles such as equipment mechanic and lead operations positions.

Council action: After the presentations and a brief question-and-answer period, a council member moved that the council go into a closed meeting "to discuss preparation, including any discussions or work product on behalf of the public governmental body or its representatives for negotiations with employee groups pursuant to Section 610.021(9), Revised Statutes of Missouri." The motion was seconded by Don Weaver. Council members Foster, Waterman, Peters, Buffalo, Carol and Sample voted yes and the motion carried.

Next steps: The closed session was convened to allow council and staff to discuss bargaining strategy and negotiation preparation under the cited statute; no public deliberation of specific contract terms or final votes occurred in open session at the meeting. Union leaders told council they want wages and market adjustments prioritized in the FY26 budget process so negotiated increases can be implemented without long delays.

Context and limits: Presenters repeatedly framed their requests as negotiations rather than finalized agreements and said many proposals had been rejected by city management or had received no counterproposal. The council's public vote to enter closed session indicates members planned further nonpublic discussion of bargaining strategy; the transcript does not show any final contract approvals or amendments in open session.