Common Council Workshop on UPSEU Tentative Agreements – June 25, 2026
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Common Council Workshop on UPSEU Tentative Agreements – June 25, 2026
The Common Council held a special workshop on June 25, 2026 at 6:00 PM to discuss and ask questions about two tentative agreements (TAs) with UPSEU Locals 6457 (City Hall employees) and 6458 (Board of Education employees). The agreements cover wages, insurance, pension, and life insurance for the period July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029. Deputy General Counsel Corey Wisneski presented the terms. No formal vote was taken; the council will consider approval at its July 6 regular meeting.
Presentation & Councilmember Question & Answer Session
- Presentation by Corey Wisneski: Outlined the three-year extensions with wage increases averaging 3.17% over the term (5.1%, 5.3%, 5.1%? Actually: 3.1%, 3.3%, 3.1% as stated). Included a remote work policy MOU allowing certain employees to work remotely up to one day per week with department head and mayor approval, subject to termination at city's discretion. For Local 6458 (BOE), mirrored health insurance and OPEB changes from the city side. Total financial impact estimated at $505,337.92 over three years.
- Councilmember Questions:
- Councilman Lafredo asked about remote work liability, coverage for injuries at home, and whether the city's liability insurance follows the employee. Wisneski said it would be evaluated case by case.
- Councilwoman Blackwell raised concerns about telework policy consistency, number of current teleworkers (not available), costs (none to city), confidentiality, and termination process. She also questioned the wage basis: Wisneski cited CPI (4.0–4.5%) and internal equity to justify the raises. Blackwell argued the executive summary relied on CPI, not historical comparisons. She also noted the OPEB contribution: only future employees mandated into Medicare Advantage; current employees not required to contribute.
- Councilwoman Salafia asked about IT security for remote access (web-based protected system) and termination of sick leave payout (50% of sick leave paid in hours). She also questioned the retirement plan language: service to max 70% eligible at 22 years, 80% at 20 years – clarified as tier differences.
- Councilman Bolino confirmed that remote employees log into the city network securely via laptops or web-based VPN.
- Councilwoman Spitola asked about denial of remote work requests – Wisneski confirmed it is solely at city's discretion and not grievable.
- Councilman Lafredo further questions: No new positions created; vacancy numbers not provided but would be supplied before July 6. He raised concerns about OPEB liability ($160 million) and noted that current employees did not increase OPEB contributions in this contract. He questioned the city's ability to pay given low ranking (143 of 169 towns) and tight budget.
- Mayor's response: Called the agreement fair, considering CPI, internal equity, and the city's financial constraints. He commended the negotiating teams.
- Councilwoman Blackwell final comments: Noted that the contract will become a non-negotiable part of future budgets, contributing to tax increases. She indicated she would likely support the contract.
Key Outcomes
- No vote taken on the TAs; a motion to adjourn was approved. The council will vote on the agreements at the July 6 regular meeting.
- The council requested additional information on vacancy numbers and cost breakdown before the vote.
- The remote work MOU, effective since October 2025, will continue under the new TA.
- The agreements provide for wage increases of 3.1% (FY27), 3.3% (FY28), and 3.1% (FY29) for Local 6457, with similar mirror provisions for Local 6458.
Meeting Transcript
This webinar is being transcribed and summarized, please. And through the republic, one nation, under God, individual with liberty and just for all. All right, welcome everyone. Closer to our special meeting tonight on the tentative agreement between the city of Middletown and local 6457, UPSU, City Hall employees, and the tentative agreement between the City of Middletown and local 6458, UPSU BOE employees for insurance, pension and life insurance effective July 1st 2026. And now if we can have the council clerk read the call of the meeting, Chief of Police of the City of Middletown, greetings. By authority of the state of Connecticut, you are hereby commanded to summon and notify Vincent Shea Lafredo, Jeanette Blackwell, Darnell Ford, Grady Faulkner Jr., Kelly Sweeney, Anthony Mangiofico, Linda Salafia, Anthony Eschennaro Sr., Jonathan Polino, Leslie Spitola, Chine Fulton, Ava M. Hart, members of the Common Council of the City of Middletown to attend a special meeting of said common council for the purpose of conducting a workshop, including a presentation followed by a question and answer session on the tentative agreement between the city of Middletown and UPSU Local 6457, effective July 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2029, and the tentative agreement between the City of Middletown and the Board of Education UpSU Local 6458 related to insurance, pension, and life insurance. Said meeting shall be a hybrid meeting to be held in the council chamber of the municipal building 245 DeCoven Drive in said city and remotely via WebEx at Join a Meeting, event 2340-220-8150 on Thursday, June 25th, 2026, beginning at 6 o'clock PM. Hereof, fail not, but make due service in return to the clerk of said city, three hours prior to the time of fixed meeting. City of Middletown, June 16th, 2026, attested by Honorable Eugene P. No Sera, Mayor. City of Middletown, June 23rd, 2026. I hereby certify I have delivered an attested copy of the foregoing order and attached agenda of the Common Council meeting to each and every council member named above via electronic mail, attested by Chief of Police Eric M. Costa. All right, thank you. And who is online? Online we have five council members. We have Councilman Anthony Mangifico, Councilman Darnell Ford, Councilwoman Kelly Sweeney, Councilwoman Linda Salafia, and Councilman Anthony Gennaro. I thank you. All right, five online. All right, and so we're going to move uh to number two on the agenda, which is a presentation and council members' questions and answers, and I will alternate after the presentation back and forth from the chamber to online. Thank you. And Corey Wisnesty is going to present, and then there's questions. Thank you. Great. Good evening. I'm Corey Wisneski, Deputy General Counsel. Here in front of you tonight on the tentative agreement between the city and UPSU local 6457, as well as local 6458, which is the UPSU bargaining unit at the Board of Education. We signed an agreement between the city and local 6457 on June 3rd of 2026. And that matter was forwarded to you on June 9th. And ultimately, under MIRA, the council has 30 days from the end of a 14-day period to approve or reject a request for funds necessary to implement the TA with our local uh 6457. There's a very similar timeline with 6458. And so I'm I'm citing that you have until July 17th. My understanding is that you'll be considering this on July 6th at your regular council meeting, which I think is great. And let me just say this has a been a busy, busy year for all of us. Um I appreciate the work of my city negotiation team, uh, Mayor Nosara here with me is Stephen Kovac and uh Kristen Holden also on the team was Justin Richardson, Nicole Carr, and uh Carl Erlacher. Um and I would also like to thank uh the UPSU negotiating teams on both ends. We appreciate their time, we appreciate um their collaboration on these important issues. And I also want to say that I appreciate your time. Uh we have had five to eight contracts this year, and uh that's a lot of meetings, that's a lot of review, that's a lot of questions, and um I just appreciate you being here and dedicating your time to our lovely city. Um so what is before you tonight uh is really a three-year extension for the city up so TA dealing only with wages. Um I provided an executive summary on June 9th that goes through that. Um the wages that are in front of you, it provides for an average of 3.17 over those three years. Um I provided the data that I get from Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. Um every once in a while, I provided the Excel spreadsheet. Um I also provided some information about some average negotiated wages over the same time period, um, some max wages, average arbitration wages, and also included um some data that there was a recent Madison Teamsters contract that received an award um based on interest-based arbitration just in April of this year, and the wages were uh 2.75 and then three. Um in addition to these um to these three uh just increases in wages over the next couple years. The other thing that we incorporated was a remote work policy. Um we had negotiated an MOU for the ability uh for certain UPSU members to work remotely up to one day a week if they're both their department head and the mayor agree that their job can be done remotely. Um it allows some people to get kind of dedicated time in their offices that um is uh not going to be interrupted and to get that work done.
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