After over 400 days of negotiating with Eastern’s administration, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local #981 has an updated contract.

The union members will receive a four percent raise over the course of a three year contract, in total costing Eastern $300,628 over those three years.

It took hours of negotiations and help from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service for Eastern’s administration to start paying the union members even a bit more adequately; as happy as we are that an agreement has been made, this is disappointing behavior.

Eastern’s advertising centers around valuing each student and our “All In” attitude.

We at the Daily Eastern News hope that our administration will start treating Eastern’s employees in the same way- especially employees who do so much of the labor on campus.

Union members have also been important in keeping us safe on campus during the pandemic as they sanitized public spaces.

We appreciate them, and we hope that everyone else on campus does, too.

Nevertheless, we’re happy for the AFSCME members! Over the last year, we have published quite a few editorials in support of their efforts, and it’s exciting to see that they were successful.