Cooperation on Benefits Upheld by Employee Relations Board
(LA City Coalition, 8/25/10)
Since 1989 the Joint Labor-Management Benefits Committee (JLMBC) has designed health care plans that hold down costs for workers, their families and taxpayers. On Monday August 23 LA's Employee Relations Board (ERB) voted 4-1 to uphold the integrity of the JLMBC's process of collaboration.
City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana had attempted to declare "impasse" because he wasn't able to use the JLMBC to push through health care costs increases to Coalition members that must be negotiated during contract bargaining.
(LA Times, 9/2/10) The board that oversees the Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks voted Wednesday to cancel its search for a company to handle its golf cart rental concession, ending a seven-year bidding process that was derided as both heavily politicized and painfully slow. The department's unionized workforce will rent out the carts at seven 18-hole courses. read more...
City Risks Increased Health Care Costs
(LA City Coalition, 8/25/10) EAA stood with the Mayor and CAO yesterday to announce their new MOU, which passes 5% health care premiums to members along with other cost increases and benefit reductions.
The agreement undermines the cooperative work of the JLMBC and may cost the city more than it saves-like when the City paid $54 million in Coalition raises this year to layoff a handful of workers.
The changes threaten the grandfather status of the city's health plan under national health care reform, potentially triggering costly mandates.
"By pooling the weight of 30,000 city workers we're able to negotiate the best prices with health care providers," said AFSCME 3090 President Alice Goff, "Breaking off individual groups of workers to negotiate separately could end up costing the city more."
Rally for Jobs
Aug 13, 2010
Thousands Raise their Voice at L.A. ‘Rally for Jobs' Protest
The south lawn of Los Angeles City Hall was the scene of the "Rally for Jobs"on Aug. 13 where several thousand union workers came to show frustration against budget cuts, layoffs and to get ready for the upcoming mid-term elections.
Los Angeles, the mass layoff capital of the United States
(PSL web, 9/1/10) In this year's first fiscal quarter, October 2009 through December 2009, the Los Angeles-Orange County region led the state in mass layoffs accounting for 19,000 newly unemployed workers, with the Los Angeles-Long Beach area accounting for 15,000 layoffs. read more...
Deal with engineers union big for Mayor Villaraigosa
(LA Daily News, 8/24/10) Members of City Hall's engineers' union have agreed to share in their health care costs, the first time a city union has made such a concession and one which Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hopes to use to leverage similar deals from other labor groups.
Thousands Raise their Voice at L.A. ‘Rally for Jobs' Protest
