Was told by a savvy business agent years ago that even though a COLA was included in the current contract you would hope that you would never receive one. The parameters that would have to be met to receive the COLA are set way to high to hope to re coop the lost buying power in any COLA increase.
One of the proposals at the last union meeting would be to change the current CPI benchmark to the one used by the SSI to more accurately reflect the level of inflation.