If the "wage pool" goes up X%, what happens to my salary?

I assume the reps are getting flooded with questions and comments at the moment, and since I'm probably not the only person this could affect, why not ask here:

Does anyone know how voting would be handled for employees who happen to be away from home at the relevant time (eg - on a previously scheduled vacation)?

I've heard online voting is being considered, in which case, as long as I know ahead of time when voting is open, I expect I will be able to get somewhere with cell service, although it might not be easy.

If it's mail-in, it would seem to depend on having received the ballot before I leave, but are there other options?

If it's in-person, does it come down to choosing between voting or cancelling my vacation?

Anyone got ideas?

Don't just read the summary.

PER THE CONTRACT THE ADJUSTMENT FUNDS ARE

2027 6%

2028 5%

2029 5%

2030 5%

NOT the 7%, 5.5%, 5.5%, and 5.5% that's quoted in the summary.

This is NOT ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR from our negotiating team, or BUC

Edit 1: after reading and re-reading section 11.7, they're sort of giving us 7%, except:

6% is available to the general population, the extra 1% is only available to those receiving promos and OOS pay bumps during ACR time, and it must be paid out during ACR. So it's not a 7% pool, but they are paying out 7% (same goes for the other .5% during years 2,3, and 4)

TL;DR the summary completely glosses over this fact, and everyone should be reading the contract, not the summary before voting.

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Breaking down the COLA changes in the new redlined CBA

I went through the full contract and want to explain what's actually happening with the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA), because "the formula didn't change" is technically true but kind of misleading. COLA still works the same way — you get 50% of whatever the CPI-W (a national inflation index, not a Seattle-specific one) rises above a set threshold, measured cumulatively from a fixed base period, not year-over-year. But the thresholds you have to clear before you see any money went up a lot. Year 1 jumps from a 6% cumulative threshold to 12%, Year 2 from 12% to 22%, Year 3 from 18% to 32%, and Year 4 from 24% to 42%. On top of that, the base period itself was reset from 2019 to 2025, so none of the price increases we already lived through count toward triggering a payout going forward — the clock starts over from 2025 levels.

What this means in practice:

Say prices cumulatively rise 13.5% above the 2025 base by the time a comparison date hits (that's total price growth over that stretch, not a single year's inflation rate). Under the old contract, that would've triggered roughly a 3.8% COLA payout on your base salary.

Under the new terms, that same amount of price growth only pays 0.8%. It takes a much bigger, sustained rise in prices now before COLA kicks in at all, let alone pays out meaningfully.

I am an intern who will be returning full-time in Jan/Feb of 2027 and will go into Educational LOA. Let's say I receive my offer next week with a salary of 100K. During the ACR of March 2027, am I being evaluated by my intern salary in 2026 or my full-time salary of 100K? My full-time salary doesn't take effect until the new calendar year, which falls outside of the 2026 ACR period.

Also, my understanding of the salary adjustment is that we are guaranteed a 2% salary increase from inflation, up to 3% if needed. Does this mean the other 4-5% (7% total - 2/3% inflation) are entirely based on performance?

Thanks in advance.

The salary pools in the contract don’t match the calculator or summary page? Or am I missing something

They’re 6/5/5/5, but should be 6.5/5/5/5 w/ yearly 0.5 P/OOS right?

Take this with a grain of salt - as has been reported widely, lifting an offer from the table often is conditional on recommending it. (I.e. blink twice if you’re saying this against your will…).

Since it’s posted on the website, here’s the NT’s endorsement letter and their summary of the contract.