News

Everything we accomplish as a union comes from CAPE members working together.

The Special Edition 2022 CAPE Newsletter is available now!

CAPE members provide a wide variety of vitally important services for County residents and businesses.  Properly identifying those services, especially the work that expedites the region’s economic recovery, has become a primary task for CAPE representatives as they prepare for 2012 salary and benefit contract negotiations.

This year’s annual benefits enrollment is quickly approaching and CAPE Union members are encouraged to plan ahead in their review of the Choices Annual Benefits Enrollment program. Choices Annual Benefits Enrollment is October 1 - October 31, 2011, for coverage as of January 1, 2012. As a reminder you will have the chance to enroll by online enrollment or telephone. Both enrollment systems will be available 24 hours a day and seven days a week over the course of the enrollment period.

There will be an unprecedented number of open seats and competitive incumbent seats up for election in the State Assembly and Senate in the June 2012 Primary and November 2012 General Elections. CAPE representatives have already received several requests from candidates for our support. Those requests, and many that will follow, will be reviewed by the CAPE Political Endorsement Committee -- CAPE PEC.

On March 22, 2006, a DPW CAPE member was called into an investigation meeting believing he was being interviewed as a potential witness to a retired former DPW employee’s misconduct. Thinking he was a witness, the CAPE member felt that he did not need representation and did not assert his Weingarten Rights (his right to have a union representative present).  However, he soon found himself the target of the investigation.  

By now, all CAPE members should have received their 2011-2012 CAPE Board of Directors Election ballot in the mail. This year, there are seven candidates competing for five open positions on the Board of Directors. The election ballot also includes an important amendment vote of the CAPE Bylaws.

Governor Jerry Brown signed the Fiscal Year 2011-2012 State Budget Act on June 30th. The final package, which balances the State Budget, was adopted by the Legislature on a majority vote with no Republican support, and imposes program cuts beyond those slated in prior versions to make up some of the remaining $9.6 billion of red ink.

Last month, Los Angeles County CEO, William T. Fujioka, announced a $23.3 billion proposed budget for FY 2011-2012 that is balanced, preserves critical services, and avoids work furloughs and layoffs for County employees. However, the County's budget situation remains unsettled as the ongoing budget debates at both the State and Federal level threaten to impact funding for critical County programs and services.

Union members know that an attack on workers anywhere is an attack on workers everywhere. Unfortunately, we are witnessing this phenomenon unfold in historic fashion as the attacks on Wisconsin public employees' collective bargaining rights continue to spill-over into states and local governments across the nation. We can now add California to the list.