[caption id="attachment_1019" align="alignleft" width="300"]Employees and administrators discuss the new policies being proposed for employees of the City of Chattanooga.[/caption]

The city of Chattanooga's human resources department released its first draft of the Employee Handbook for review by the union members who have partnered with the city on the new policies.

During the meeting, SEIU Local 205 members gave administration a 10-page document outlining our concerns with the first draft of the proposed handbook.  Each union member at the meeting took responsibility for presenting a part of the document while administrators listened and asked questions about the union's concerns.

Management was represented by Tina Camba, Brent Goldberg, Todd Dockery, Madeline Green, Travis McDonough, and David Carmody.

Union members were represented by Robert Ledford, Terry Davis, Sharron Pryor, Steve West, Alonzo Strickland, Nancy Nason and Jeff Templin.

“I thought the meeting was great” said Sharron Pryor, chief steward.  Jeff Templin added, “If they listen to us and take into consideration at least half of what we presented to them, I think this handbook will be a document we can get behind.”

Mayor Andy Berke made a surprise appearance in the meeting, congratulated the members on their hard work in the committees and all of the effort everyone has put forward in making the employee handbook.

The union continues to work with the administration to craft a uniform policy handbook and that clarifies rules and improves working conditions for all city employees.

Kate Sheets contributed to this report.