In the past two years since I took office, my administration has faced down tough budgets, reduced the size of government, created new revenue sources, modernized our operations, and negotiated an historic labor contract with our teachers and reduced crime significantly throughout the city. Furthermore, we have demonstrated our commitment to you, the taxpayers and residents of our great city by working hard to negotiate fair and affordable contracts with our labor unions, especially the City’s largest, Local 1033, of the Laborers International Union of North America.

That is why I am proud to announce that we recently reached an agreement with the Local 1033 leadership, which was then ratified by the 900 members of this union. The groundbreaking agreement makes the City’s workforce more professional, more accountable, and more affordable. It will be a major factor in catapulting city government into the 21st Century.

This contract includes a first-ever health care co-share, elimination of the no-layoff clause, increased management flexibility with city workers, the ability to reorganize city government, and a first-ever public employee apprenticeship program. As a result, Providence taxpayers will get a government that is both modernized and responsive to the challenges facing us today, while providing for substantial savings over the next three years.

I want to thank the Union leadership - Armand Sabitoni, Donald Iannazzi and Vicki Virgilio - for their hard work and good faith in making the agreement possible. Government is what we make of it, and the men and women of 1033 have demonstrated their support for a new way of doing business in the City of Providence. This is a tribute to their professionalism, and they deserve our respect and applause as a result.

This agreement signals a new era of responsibility, accountability and results. We’ve become smarter, leaner and stronger, as we continue making Providence one of America’s greatest cities. .