The primary means of resolving labor-management disputes in Los Angeles County has been inactive since the County Board of Supervisors unilaterally imposed a new appointment process for the Employee Relations Commission (ERCOM) nearly two years ago.
County officials continue to insist on an appointment process for the ERCOM’s Commissioners that replaces the three, mutually agreed "neutral" appointments with a new structure of one appointment favored by labor and one favored by management, and a third appointment of a "neutral" agreed to by both labor and management. It's a system that results in an unfair Commission, especially since County officials also insist that, if labor and management can't agree on the "neutral" appointment, management would unilaterally appoint someone to fill the “neutral” position.
County officials have filled the third position following a failure to agree on a "neutral" Commissioner. Representatives of the Coalition of County Unions (CCU) and CAPE remain optimistic that the newly elected Board of Supervisors will restore ERCOM to its original, fair structure in 2015.