4/30 + International Labor Day + Donation Incentive Program
Hi all,
I have a writeup about International Labour Day and a big announcement about our donation incentive program this week. Please review carefully - we have a few deadlines coming up which may be relevant to you or your fellow members.
Scholarship Reminder: Just as a reminder, the 2026 Jackie Awosika Scholarship Competition is open until tonight at 5PM. This annual competition is an opportunity for UAEA members and their families to win some funds for college or trade school - all they need to do is fill out a quick application with some background information, copies of their transcripts, and answers to a few essay questions. Members, their children, and direct relatives who are entering college or already in college may apply from now through April 30th - $2500 in scholarship awards are distributed to those who have the strongest applications. Winners will also be recognized at the June 4th, 2026, Tempe City Council Meeting. Members can find the full list of rules at this link, and apply to the contest here.
International Labor Day: Tomorrow is May 1st, a day which is celebrated in 160 countries as International Labor Day. I did a fairly comprehensive writeup on the holiday last year which you can read on our blog. I don’t have many new details to add but did want to share some interesting facts about recent union trends in the US.
The Center on Economic and Policy Research published two articles recently about national union trends in 2025. The top-level takeaway in the first article seems to be that union participation rates are fairly bad across the board compared to other nations…but there was a slight uptick in both the private and public sectors in 2025. Participation jumped to 10% nationally in 2025, from 9.9% in 2024. That might seem unremarkable, but that’s an increase of about 400,000 workers during a labor market contraction and may not reflect the whole increase since they were missing some data from the federal workforce. Participation rates also vary considerably between the public and private sector. In the public sector, 32.9% of employees are covered by a union contract, while in the private sector only 5.9% are covered. Their data also indicates that public sector participation has remained fairly stable since 1983 (36.7% to 32.9%), but private sector participation dropped from 16.5 to 5.9% over the same period (a 65% decline).
The second article looks at how union participation rates have changed in different US states over time, and has some details on how Arizona in particular has been impacted. 17.8% of Arizona public sector employees were in a union in 1985 - unfortunately that rate has declined to 11.5%. Those rates are still much higher than the total (public+private sector) participation rate in both years - those numbers were 9.6% and 4.1%, respectively. If we took the public sector numbers and applied them to the 800 or so non-supervisory employees who are eligible for UAEA, we would estimate UAEA would have about 92 members. We instead have about 285, essentially three times the membership of public sector unions in the rest of the state. This is an amazing number and something everyone in this group should be proud of - that said, the more we can continue to grow, the easier of a time we’ll have continuing to negotiate benefits and improve workplace conditions.
One final thing to keep in mind this International Worker’s Day is that the decline in US unions has real repercussions for the average worker. According to the Economic Policy Institute, the average worker’s productivity has increased 92% since 1979 but wages have only increased 33.6% over the same period. That means the average worker is working harder and/or generating more value for their organization each day than workers 50 years ago, but not being paid a proportionate amount for their efforts. The EPI argues this is due to a few factors, including a federal reversal on antitrust laws and changes to financial regulations, but they also note that there have been a number of changes made to labor law which has made it harder for workers to organize. I bring this up because I think it is easy to draw at least an indirect connection between the decline in union membership and the decline in people’s wages - it is harder to keep wages low when an entire company or industry is militantly opposed to that occurring. I share a lot of historical details about the labor struggles in the past and I think it is worth stepping back every so often to think about the parallels to the present - while unions have made a lot of progress in terms of safety and working conditions over the past 200 years, there are still battles that may need to be fought in the present and future.
Donation Incentive Program: I’m pleased to announce that UAEA’s Board is starting a Floating Holiday Leave (FHL) Donation Incentive Program. The Board wants to provide an extra perk to employees who donate their FHL hours to support our work, and will start doing an annual drawing for multiple $100 giftcards. The drawing will start with 10x$100 giftcards, and more will be added to the pot if more hours are donated. Winners can select the form their giftcard will take - if we can purchase locally, they can request it. All mandatory FHL donations already made by members will count as entries (including any donations members made in July 2025) and members and non-members can get additional entries if they donate additional hours above the mandatory level. If anyone would like additional entries, we will be accepting additional donations from now until May 21st, then will do a drawing at our July Board meeting. For a full list of rules and how the drawing will work, please check out this link.
For full transparency, the board has two goals we hope to accomplish with this. First, we recognize that mandatory FHL donation might disincentivize some employees from joining or remaining members - we’d like to do something every year to make the donation less onerous. Second, we would like to lower the number of hours we need to take from members on an annual basis and hope that we can do so in coming years by gathering consistent donations and building up a bank of UB hours. We also hope that by opening this up to non-members we can reduce the number of hours members need to donate - that said, given both the number of members participating in this and the number of hours already donated, the odds are good that members will win the majority of gift cards in this year’s raffle. Please feel free to share the donation link with non-members in your area.
If you would like to donate some FHL time for additional entries (one extra entry per hour), please fill out this form at this link. If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to reach out to president@uaeatempe.com.
City Council Meeting Update: I attended last week’s City Council work study session and plan to attend tonight’s meeting as well. Deputy City Manager Lisette Camacho gave a presentation about two proposed taxes that the City would like Council to present to voters in the next election, a Public Safety Tax and a Transit Tax. These taxes, if approved by voters, would increase the sales tax in Tempe by .5%, providing around $60 million in additional revenue for the City each year. While the funds raised by this tax would be dedicated to public safety (police, fire, parks) and transit (lightrail, streetcar, and orbit operations/management), it would free up funds for the rest of the City’s budget and make up for the loss of the rental tax (the reason we’ve seen budget cuts and hiring pauses in recent years). Multiple Council members expressed some skepticism towards this tax and asked Lisette to gather information on some other budget saving offsets, but they did not shoot the idea down. There will be a formal vote at today’s Council meeting about whether or not to put this tax on the ballot for the next election - I’ll let members know if that happens in next week’s email.
MOU Update: The MOU negotiation team is wrapping up negotiations and should have a draft to share with members in the next few weeks. Depending on when we receive that draft/finalize those details, I may send it out prior to my weekly email. Like last time, we’ll probably give members a week or so to review the changes, then will have a vote to see if it will be approved.
UAEA Elections: Nominations for the 2026 UAEA Elections can be submitted between now and Thursday, May 7th. There are 5 positions available for nominations, the President, Secretary, Communications Director, and 2 Citywide Representatives. Members can nominate either themselves or their fellow members to these positions - please see the attached documents for information about eligibility for each role and what each position does for UAEA.
UAEA Elections are handled by the Elections Committee, an independent group of UAEA members who set schedules, determine eligibility, and verify results. This year the committee is composed of members Julie Reveles, Heather Armstrong, and Alima Dia. They have proposed the following schedule for our elections.
Thursday, May 7th - Nominations due
Thursday, May 14th - Candidate Bios due
A candidate forum or forums will be held in May if there are multiple candidates vying for a role. The Committee will decide whether or not to hold forums if only one candidate is running in each category.
Monday, June 1st - Voting (if multiple candidates vying for a role)
Monday, June 8th - Results announced
If you would like to submit a nomination, please fill out the linked nomination form. You can also download and fill out the attached form and return it to any member of the committee by the deadline.
Crafts Contest: Our Quarter 2 Crafts competition is now open and will be accepting entries until Thursday, May 21st. This contest does not require you to create anything new - we simply want to see the best/most-interesting hand-made crafts that members or their children have made. Prizes will be awarded to the top crafts in each of three categories and additional prizes will be distributed if a certain number of people enter in each category. The board will also let members vote on their favorites if we receive more than a few entries. A full list of contest rules are available to review on our blog and members can enter pictures of their crafts at this link.
Next Member Meeting: Our next membership meeting will be on Wednesday, May 20th, from 12-1PM at the JGM Water Treatment Plant. You can rsvp here until Thursday, May 14th, at 5PM. Please note that the parking for the JGM Plant is a little hard to find if you haven’t been there before. Please reference the attached photo or the instructions on our Events Page if you need directions. Please also note that this will take place on a Wednesday, not a Thursday as usual.
HR Benefits Fair: The annual benefits fair will take place at Tempe Center for the Arts from 9AM-2PM on Tuesday, May 5th. This is a good opportunity to learn about your benefits and ask questions to providers, all on City time. Some of the conversations, like about retirement plans, may be counted towards your 2026-2027 health insurance incentive. There will also be opportunities to win a variety of prizes from the attendees. If you’re interested in attending, please let your supervisors know soon - some workgroups may need to limit attendees due to operational needs like ensuring sufficient coverage throughout the workday.
UAEA will be tabling at the event and offering $25 giftcards to people who sign up as members and $25 gift cards to the person they said recommended them. If there is someone in your workgroup who has been on the fence about joining, let them know there is an extra incentive if they do so on this date.
Employee Childcare Survey: Tempe employee groups were asked by management to gather some additional details on what employee’s childcare needs are, so UAEA and TSA have put together a joint survey looking for feedback from our members. The linked survey gives parents an opportunity to provide feedback on what they’re looking for in terms of childcare services from Tempe or a community partner - we will then use that information to make some proposals to Tempe about the best ways to support staff.
Bereavement Policy Change: I shared a proposed change to the existing bereavement policy in last week’s email. This change would remove aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews from Tempe’s bereavement policy but would double the amount of time employees would receive to grieve their parents (raising it from 5 to 10 days). UAEA’s board has not committed to anything and would like to know what our members think. If you would like to provide feedback on this policy change, please fill out this survey in the next few weeks. Our MOU’s current bereavement policy is in section 4-5.
Crafts Contest: Our Quarter 2 Crafts competition is now open and will be accepting entries until Thursday, May 21st. This contest does not require you to create anything new - we simply want to see the best/most-interesting hand-made crafts that members or their children have made. Prizes will be awarded to the top crafts in each of three categories and additional prizes will be distributed if a certain number of people enter in each category. The board will also let members vote on their favorites if we receive more than a few entries. A full list of contest rules are available to review on our blog and members can enter pictures of their crafts at this link.
Community Resources: UAEA is aware of rising fuel prices and how this is impacting members. We are having some internal city discussions about possible workplace changes, but also wanted to post some resources for members who may be struggling to make ends meet. This is a similar list to what we posted in November with a few new additions. Please feel to reach out if you have additional recommendations about local resources.
AZ Food Bank Network: This link contains information about dozens of food banks and assistance sites across Arizona. You can search by the directory and the zipcodes they provide services for to find food banks in your areas.
AZ Medical and Nutrition Assistance: This is an Arizona-State run program that can help connect people with Arizona State programs that provide assistance for people who need medical coverage, WIC support, or additional access to nutrition. I do not know all that the program entails.
Maricopa County Utility Support: This is a Maricopa County program that can help people receive assistance paying for utilities. Some cities have unique offerings while others are covered under one umbrella program.
AZ 211: This is a Arizona-State run help line that can help people connect with a variety of resources and support they may be unaware of in their area.
Tempe Employee Relief Fund: This is a Tempe-run program (paid for by employee donations) that can provide support of up to $1,200 to assist Tempe employees with unplanned emergency bills (housing, mortgage, utilities, etc).
Employee Assistance Program: If you have insurance through the City of Tempe, you can take advantage of the EAP, a group of resources which can provide free therapy, legal consultations, or classes on stress management.
Cheap Recipe Guides: These are two free cookbooks designed for cooking high-nutrition and easy meals on a budget. Even if you’re not a fan of the recipes, there are some good tips on stocking a kitchen with affordable and long-lasting staples.
Free Transit Pass: This contains information on how to obtain your free bus, streetcar, and lightrail pass as a Tempe employee.
Thanks for a great week, everyone!