Early this year, after several rounds of difficult and contentious negotiations, the CAPE Negotiating Team for the Technical Support Bargaining Unit reached a Tentative Agreement (TA) with Sanitation Districts’ management for a successor MOU for their Unit. The TA, however, did not garner the required majority vote of the membership for approval.
In an attempt to improve the TA, the CAPE Bargaining Team called a membership meeting to identify alternative proposals that the Unit’s members could support to settle the contract dispute. The CAPE Team returned to the negotiating table in July to present the alternatives to management, and waited two and one-half months for a response. On October 4th, management responded with its position that the original TA is “fair and equitable” and, therefore, it represents the Districts’ “last, best, and final offer” of the contract negotiations. An impasse to the negotiations was declared, and the impasse procedures outlined in the expired MOU will now be initiated.
The impasse procedures call for mediation as the next step to try to settle the contract dispute. The parties are required to mutually select a mediator who will attempt to bridge the gap between management’s position and the alternate proposals that were last put forth by the CAPE Negotiating Team. CAPE representatives will be seeking input soon from Technical Support Unit members regarding any areas they believe the CAPE Team should modify, change, or eliminate in an effort to reach an agreement during the mediation process. If the mediation process fails, according to the expired MOU the CAPE Team would have the right to pursue Fact-Finding to resolve the contract dispute.
Technical Support Unit members will be informed of the issues relating to the upcoming mediation as the process moves forward. Anyone with questions regarding the Technical Support Unit contract negotiations should call the CAPE office directly at (626) 243-0340 for an update.