Columbia, LiUNA 955 remain at odds in wage talks as outsourcing costs face scrutiny
Mitchell Kaminski
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The City of Columbia and local union LiUNA 955 remain locked in wage negotiations, with the next bargaining session scheduled for July 24. The union has criticized the city for only offering a 1% cost-of-living adjustment.
Talks have been ongoing since April as union members continue to push for higher wages, citing low pay and heavy reliance on outsourcing by the city.
On Monday, LiUNA Local 955 and Missouri Jobs With Justice held a press conference outside Columbia City Hall, where roughly 20 people — most of them city employees- carried picket signs and called for better pay. Union leaders argue that the city spends more than $6 million annually on outsourced labor that could be handled in-house by union employees.
The union’s economic proposal includes a cost-of-living adjustment, a 7% scale adjustment, and step increases for all union-eligible employees. The estimated cost of the proposal, excluding benefits and retirement contributions, is approximately $938,000.
Krista Murray, a paratransit driver who has worked for the city for three years, said wages for many union-represented workers fall below the poverty line.
“It is absolutely an atrocity for anyone who works full-time for their city to not be able to afford to live in their city,” Murray said. “I’m from here. All I want is for Columbia to hold true to its own promises. I work for the city. Why aren’t they working for me?”
“If the city invests in us, we will turn around and invest right back in the city. No more poverty wages, reasonable cost-of-living increase, 1% does not pay the rent,” she added. “Our working conditions are everyone’s living conditions.”
Andrew Hutchinson, a LiUNA Local 955 union representative, said low pay and morale have forced many employees to work multiple jobs.
“I think there would have been more people here, to tell you the truth. But so many of our members are working second jobs or they’re unable to afford child care right now,” Hutchinson said. “I think there’s a real sad morale in the city right now.”
Hutchinson pointed to the city’s temporary labor contracts — over $1.25 million combined for 22nd Century Technologies Inc. and PeopleReady Inc. during 2023 and 2024 — as evidence of misplaced priorities.
“The less staffing we get, the more willing we are to fill with outsourcing,” Hutchinson said. “The work has to get done, but we need to invest it in our own people to get the work done so that folks are paid well and it’s sustainable.”
City Manager De’Carlon Seewood said negotiations are ongoing and the 1% cost-of-living adjustment offered so far is not final.
“It’s not a hard line. So we’re in the process of doing negotiations for a contract,” Seewood said. “With the contract negotiations, you start low, you get high, and it’s just a back-and-forth process. So we have not put the line in the sand and said it’s only a 1%. It’s just part of a negotiation process.”
Seewood defended the city’s use of outsourcing, citing both cost efficiency and the challenge of maintaining services with current staffing levels.
“You have to look at the bottom line of your expenses. So we don’t outsource just for the sake of outsourcing,” Seewood explained. “When you look at the city, you look at the number of parks that we’ve now acquired, we don’t have the staff to do that all in-house and so you do outsource some of that.”
Seewood emphasized that outsourcing has not been used to cut city jobs.
“We have not outsourced to eliminate jobs,” Seewood said. “We’re actually adding some staff. But the goal is just to be able to provide the jobs that our residents are calling for as expeditiously as possible.”
According to city records, Columbia spent a combined $8 million on outsourced fleet maintenance during the last two fiscal years. Additional outsourcing costs from the 2024 fiscal year included:
Fleet Operations: $2.1 million
Water Distribution: $1.8 million
Solid Waste: $468,000
Parks and Recreation: $423,000
Sewer and Stormwater: about $58,000 combined.
Union leaders claim city employees averaged nearly 100 hours of overtime annually due to understaffing. The number of unfilled union positions has fluctuated between 51 and 87 in recent years. Hutchinson fears that the recent progress they have made could backslide unless the cost-of-living adjustments improve.
Chris Scott, a city employee, also criticized the city’s approach to managing funds.
“The city does not have a revenue problem, they have a spending problem,” Scott said. “They make easy choices to outsource, waste paper money instead of handing management choices on how to do more with less.”
Seewood said he hopes to wrap up negotiations before the city begins presenting its fiscal 2026 budget.