The state Board of Regents ratified labor contracts with three unions at its institutions on Friday, approving a 1.3 percent annual pay increase for each union. 

The contracts were approved with the University of Iowa’s Campaign to Organize Graduate Students, University of Northern Iowa’s United Faculty, and UI Hospitals and Clinics’ Service Employees International Union 199.

In addition to a pay increase, the SEIU contract also includes a provision which will create meetings between the union and the UIHC administration facilitated by the regents. 

“We’re going to try to facilitate these and have them on a more frequent basis,” regents’ associate counsel Kristin Bauer said. “We think it will be helpful in the continuation of the communication and cooperation with the members of that union.”

As previously reported by The Daily Iowan, both SEIU and COGS originally asked for a 5 percent wage increase, in which the regents counter offered a 1 percent wage increase for both groups.

Both United Faculty and SEIU have ratified their contracts, and COGS is concluding its vote to ratify its contract on Friday.

COGS and SEIU have asked for language concerning non-wage topics to be added back into the contracts, as well. Because of a 2017 law, the only mandatory negotiation topic when it comes to collective bargaining for public unions is wages.