FOR AS LONG as most people can remember, the inflation index on which bargaining agreements are based has risen each year by anywhere from 2 to 5 percent, meaning that employees with cost-of-living allowances (colas) in their contracts would see an increase by that amount in their pay checks the following year.

This year, however, as with so much in the economy, it is different.

The consumer price index for the Seattle-Tacoma area, the cpi-w — on which a number of contracts are based — actually fell from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009 by 0.7 percent.

“It has affected a number of Council 2 contracts that are based on the June-to-June formula,” says Council 2 Director of Organizing Bill Keenan.

Because many of the bargaining agreements are tied to the index, a drop into negative territory raises new concerns about those provisions, Keenan says.

“But, because of this change, for the first time many of the new agreements we are negotiating, or have negotiated, contain provisions stipulating that, if the cpi goes below zero we will maintain the current wage,” he adds.

The annual Seattle-Tacoma inflation index for wage earners, known as the cpi-w, at June 30 each year over the past 10 years, showing the dip it took from July 1, 2008 to June 2009.