YOUNGSTOWN – Unlike the long and bitter dispute during its last contract negotiations with the Youngstown administration, the city’s street department union ironed out a three-year deal after only two bargaining sessions.

City council will vote Wednesday to approve the three-year deal while the 29-member union has already done so.

“The negotiations went significantly smoother than the last time,” said Steven Anzevino, president of the Teamsters Local 377, which represents the street department union. “Communication was much better this time. It made for much quicker and amicable negotiations. I’m glad both sides can work better than they did the last time.”

A. Joseph Fritz, a senior assistant city law director, said: “The union and the administration realized it was better to work together. It was surprisingly agreeable across the board.”

The union agreed to a 2.5% salary increase for this year, 4% for 2026 and 2.5% for 2027.

The raises for this year and next year are in line with what other city unions have received. The street department is the first city union to negotiate a raise for 2027.

In addition to the raises, the street department union members will receive $600 safety bonuses every six months, the uniform allowance for steel-toe boots was increased from $175 to $225 annually, exposure pay went from $805 to $1,000 annually, and those with a Class A commercial driver’s license will get a $1,300 annual bonus from $1,100 in the old contract and those with Class B licenses will get $650 annually, up from $250.

“All of the very serious issues were taken care of in the last contract,” Fritz said.

The contract was settled after two negotiating sessions, Fritz and Anzevino said.

“Only two sessions is unheard of,” Anzevino said.

The three-year contract is retroactive to Jan. 1, when the old deal expired.

During the last negotiations, which were finalized more than 10 months after the previous contract expired, the union held an informational picket outside city hall after Mayor Jamael Tito Brown asked city council in July 2022 to give him the power to impose the city’s “last, best and final offer” after the administration considered the two sides at an impasse and shut down negotiations. Council declined to give Brown that authority.

Anzevino went to city contract negotiators in October with changes that both sides accepted though the union approved the deal by a slim margin.

The “last, best and final offer” was 2% for 2022 and 2.5% for both 2023 and 2024 with no retroactivity.

Anzevino got the city to increase the lump sum from $500 to $1,000 per employee for the 10-plus months without a contract and for the bonus for not using any sick days during a quarter for each work to go from $159.20 to $400.

The union agreed to raise the hourly wage for an entry-level laborer or driver from $13.94 to $16 an hour. It’s now $16.84.

The city also agreed to give union workers an additional personal day off when they work three straight days with 12-hour shifts or five straight days with eight-hour shifts plowing snow in December, January and February if the department can properly operate with those employees off.

In the last contract and this one, the city keeps control over vacation time during those three months – when snow removal is at its highest need – except to permit it when the forecast doesn’t call for snow.