Public sector collective bargaining rights are under serious attack. All across the nation, public employees and their unions are being wrongfully blamed for public agency budget deficits. It’s as if everyone has forgotten that it was Wall Street not Main Street; and definitely not public employees, who brought our nation’s economy to the brink of collapse.
Fortunately, in California, the right to bargain collectively with our employer over our wages, benefits, and working conditions remains a fundamental right for public employees. Later this year, CAPE members will have the opportunity to exercise this all-important right of collective bargaining.
Salary and benefit compensation for CAPE members are covered by two contracts with County management. Both are set to expire this year, and both will be the focus of a great deal of attention and effort to make sure the vital public services we provide day in and day out will continue.
Salary contract negotiations, or “unit” negotiations cover the salary, special pay practices, working conditions, grievance procedures and other non-benefit terms and conditions of our employment. Unit negotiations serve as the primary labor contract for professional employees in all six CAPE represented Los Angeles County bargaining units.
Preparation to engage management representatives at the salary contract negotiations table can potentially require hundreds of hours in research, internal communications, data collection, strategic planning, and program implementation.
The current collective bargaining agreement allows up to 4 CAPE members from each of the six bargaining units to serve as the official negotiations team. CAPE Board members automatically serve on the negotiations team.
The remaining 15 positions are appointed by the Board. The team will assemble proposals to offer County management our terms for a new contract, and will also consider the offers from County management.
CAPE members vote to ratify new contract terms, although contract extensions are usually reviewed by the CAPE Board of Directors and negotiations team.
Fringe benefits contract negotiations cover a wide variety of medical, dental and vision benefits, along with terms for holidays, sick days, deferred compensation contributions, retiree health care and pension contributions. In most cases, all county workers are subject to the same terms, so the fringe contract negotiations are handled by the Coalition of County Unions -- CCU. The Chairman of the 10-union member CCU is CAPE Counsel and lead negotiator Blaine Meek. He has served in that capacity for several years, and has several decades of experience at the bargaining table across from County representatives.
Timelines set by the current salary contract dictate that CAPE representatives must officially engage management with a letter to request negotiations for a new contract no later than May 15, 2012. Preparations for that date are already under way. Similar efforts in the past included analysis of the County’s budget condition, regional economic forecasts, salary comparisons by job classifications, a staffing level analysis, and a cost of living increase analysis for the period since our last pay raise which was January 2009.
CAPE members interested in representing their bargaining unit in the upcoming salary contract negotiations were asked to submit a statement of interest by February 7th. We will announce the 2012 CAPE Contract Negotiations Teams later this month.