Members of Sheet Metal Workers Local 10 will receive wage and benefit increases totaling $4.95 an hour over three years, an arbitration panel has ruled.

The decision, which was issued June 29, is binding on Local 10 and employers who are part of the Sheeet Metal and Roofing Contractors Association. It awards a total of 10 cents more an hour than proposals that members rejected three times.

Terms of the three-year contract, which covers residential work in the seven-county metro area, are retroactive to May 1. The increases are $1.55 in 2005, $1.65 in 2006 and $1.75 in 2007.

The new contract also removes the binding arbitration language, leaving the local free to strike when it expires in 2008, said Local 10 business manager Craig Sandberg.

Sign contract still unsettled
Meanwhile, a settlement remains elusive on a metro-area sign contract covering about 100 members of Sign, Screen and Display Local 880. Negotiators met July 7 and were scheduled to meet again July 12, said Paul Richards, business representative with District Council 82 of the Painters and Allied Trades. The workers' previous contract expired April 30.

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org