Important development with choppy financial waters ahead
MELROSE — Mayor Jen Grigoraitis announced Wednesday that her administration has secured one-year extensions to the City’s collective bargaining agreements with the unions representing Melrose Department of Public Works laborers and the City’s clerical workers.
Closing these contract negotiations marks the first time in at least 10 years that all collective bargaining agreements for city and school employees are settled and closed.
These new agreements amend three-year collective bargaining agreements originally set to expire on July 1, 2025. Extending these agreements for an additional year (to July 1, 2026) will improve the City’s ability to anticipate and meet financial obligations in the challenging Fiscal Year 2026 municipal budget cycle. Mayor Grigoraitis and members of her administration have repeatedly emphasized this year that the City faces uncertain and challenging budget prospects as fixed costs continue to grow, outpacing flattened revenue sources.
“Our clerical workers and laborers engage every day with members of the public, performing vital work ranging from responding to constituent needs to filling potholes on our roads,” said Grigoraitis. “I’m very pleased to announce these one-year contract extensions, which ensure that our front-line city employees continue to earn fair wages while the City works to address our revenue shortfalls and develop budgets that meet our needs for the future. Thank you to the unions and the members of my administration who worked fairly and conscientiously to settle these negotiations.”
The Melrose Association of City Hall Employees, which includes Melrose Public School nurses, and Melrose Public Works Employees, which encompasses all DPW laborers and school custodians, are both members of the Massachusetts Laborers District Council Local 272.
Following are the employee bargaining units, the number of employee members and the expiration of their work agreements with the City of Melrose:
— Melrose Educators Union, 470 members, June 28, 2025
— Melrose Public Works Employees, Mass. Laborers District Council Local 272, 53 members, June 28, 2026
— Melrose Firefighters, IAFF Local 1617, 52 members, June 28, 2026
— Melrose Patrol Officers Association, 40 members, June 27, 2027
— Melrose Association of City Hall Employees, Mass. Laborers District Council Local 272, 36 members, June 28, 2026
— Melrose Teamsters Local Union No. 25, 17 members, June 27, 2027
— Melrose Traffic Supervisors Association, 15 members, June 28, 2026
— Melrose Superior Police Officers Association, 12 members, June 27, 2027
— Melrose Public Library Staff Association, AFSCME Council 93, 11 members, June 28, 2026
— Melrose Drivers of Special Needs Children, 5 members, June 27, 2027