LA City Workers.com – City of LA Blog

Surprise! Christmas is canceled! Courtesy of the Coalition of City unions, SEIU and a host of other Grinches.  Erip Cash Poof Capped and delayed.

Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, ALL GONE.

That is the result of the new agreement.

Cash Overtime for Civilians, GONE.

Landslide, Earthquake, Fire, Flood, Terrorist Attack, Well I hope the LAPD and LAFD can Handle massive traffic control and clean up, because city workers will be hard pressed to show up to work overtime, without cash compensation.

Raises GONE. It will be 2011 before we see a penny IF the city feels it should honor the contract with the coalition since after all it feels it can open them up at will.

But Wait Hold Everything I am proposing today Not a single member of the Coalition of City Unions vote in favor of this contract until we get the following written binding concession from the City of Los Angeles, Council, LAPPL, UFLA and the Mayor By 3Pm on 9/24/2009 Otherwise LA Cityworkers.com would suggest we Soundly REJECT the giveback deal.

Simple, LAFD & LAPD obtain the same NO CASH restrictions on Overtime!

It might hurt the following employees substantially considering this is how much they made in OVERTIME ALONE! This is just a very small sample of the thousands of LAFD & LAPD Overtime Whores you are giving Christmas & Thanksgiving up for.

FIRE    FIRE BATTALION CHIEF    $100,515.39
FIRE    ENGINEER OF FIRE DEPT    $101,180.61
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $101,738.56
POLICE    POLICE DETECTIVE III    $101,739.13
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN I         $101,952.19
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $101,983.38
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN I         $102,274.69
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $102,275.52
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $102,287.68
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN I         $102,413.19
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $102,543.78
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $102,966.02
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $103,256.91
POLICE    POLICE OFFICER III    $103,590.16
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $103,749.48
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $104,744.99
FIRE    ENGINEER OF FIRE DEPT    $104,966.35
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $105,362.88
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $106,035.12
POLICE    POLICE DETECTIVE III    $106,242.83
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $106,369.39
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $106,465.11
FIRE    FIRE INSPECTOR I    $106,466.26

FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN II         $70,000.18
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN I         $70,010.34
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $70,026.20
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $70,042.86
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $70,100.83
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN I         $70,178.37
FIRE    ENGINEER OF FIRE DEPT    $70,180.52
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN I         $70,181.75
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $70,292.64
FIRE    FIRE INSPECTOR I    $70,300.59
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN I         $70,429.88
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN I         $70,470.77
POLICE    POLICE SERGEANT II    $70,473.10
POLICE    POLICE OFFICER III    $70,480.10
FIRE    ENGINEER OF FIRE DEPT    $70,597.03
POLICE    POLICE OFFICER III    $70,624.27
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $70,626.34
FIRE    ENGINEER OF FIRE DEPT    $70,697.65
FIRE    FIRE INSPECTOR II    $70,735.22
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN II         $70,747.46
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $70,840.30
FIRE    FIRE CAPTAIN II         $70,871.82
FIRE    FIREFIGHTER III         $70,908.65
FIRE    ENGINEER OF FIRE DEPT    $70,911.31

Coalition Members YOU need NO MORE PROOF THEN THIS that your Sacrifice is going into Sworns Pocket!

I am sure this list may make some of you ill or depressed if so See a Dr. on Friday 9/25/2009 a new Furlough Flu has been diagnosed this contract is sickening every civilian employee in every classification!

Stand Firm Support our struggle and REJECT THE LIE’S!

City of Los Angeles and Coalition of LA Unions Conspire to keep Actuarial Study from reaching members prior to voting on contract.

Those are the latest accusations from employees forced to vote on ratifying there employment contracts.

Darren Whitfield a Spokesman for lacityworkers.com said, ” it’s inexcusable to force members to vote on an issue with such far reaching financial implications  in complete ignorance of the full financial ramifications.”

Lacers has not responded for comment, CAO representatives were unavailable after numerous requests, the Mayors office was silent on the matter referring calls to the CAO’s office, and the Company performing the Actuarial  Segal would only confirm that the Study was not near completion and had NO FURTHER COMMENT.

Actuarial Studies indicate such things as risk and financial viability.  Assumptions used can change the outcome dramatically, currently the issue of Public Pension funds using a return formula that is twice the rate of private pension funds is under scrutiny and could be reduced to match the private sector. Most people in the private industry conclude that using such a generous formula puts the retirement systems at risk of future failure from lack of funding.

Formulas used to determine the actual cost are also the cause of controversy because of the ease with which they are manipulated. Previous studies from Segal have come under scrutiny for failing to account for more then 1 scenario. 

LA union coalition members have been asked to vote without knowing the true cost of this plan and are ultimately responsible for repayment of the early retirement plan since the city has demanded it be cost neutral.

Under a worst case scenario city workers could be forced to pay up to 20% of there income towards this plan or take out loans in order to satisfy the repayment. These details seemed insignificant to mention to member’s as the only plan highlights were brief snippets of just how good the plan was. Current members have begun talking among themselves to determine a best course of action to prevent any plan such as this from getting a chance to see a vote without proper safeguards.

Some of the suggestions are .

• City Clerk run Official Elections meeting the California, LA County , and City of La Election codes to prevent voter fraud
• Forcing any  retirement plan programs such as the ERIP to meet full disclosure laws similar to SEC regulations.
• Independent Actuarial Studies.
• Requirements to Force a 2/3 majority vote before retirement incentives are approved when membership is Liable.
• Require Full Disclosure of Facts when sending items to a vote.
• Require a change to the administrative code forcing any union representing Los Angeles City Workers to face a reduction in members dues if they face a salary reduction.

These ideas have been brought forward due to the overwhelming bias and fraud that is underway in the current election which brings comparison to Saddam Hussein’s regime where 100% of the population voted 100% in favor of re-electing him to office.

Lacityworkers.com will keep you updated on the reform at city hall.

Prepare yourself for a Landslide victory in this so called election.

Here are some interesting links I found relating to retirement and erips etc.

http://itarumblings.blogspot.com/2008/05/lacers-early-retirement-window.html

http://ladailyblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/exclusive-villaraiogsa-budget-analysis.html

http://ronkayela.com/2009/06/heres-the-plan-is-it-good-for.html

As I sit in isolation in the woods to grasp the full ramifications of this new contract, I look upon the giant pines I surround myself with.

Tall strong weathered majestic pines which have stood for hundreds of years some well before our great city was settled. I think to myself about this new contract that has been proposed and wonder why our union can’t stand strong and instead like a tree with no roots just simply topples over.

How many years have blue collar, and civilian workers been cast aside in order to please the politicians?
How many times have we as a group seen other bargaining units prosper at our expense?

When we were offered a decent contract, we felt appreciated, respected, only to ne the first to get dragged to the table under a false shared sacrafice plan.

Shared sacrafice is a really catchy phrase used to disguise a layoff list and departmental cutbacks. It’s own definition leads one to belive it is shared by all which it isn’t, sacrafice would be accurate in that civilian workers and there departments have been sacraficed in order to maintain Sworn employees high standards of living, cover there shortcomings and civil liabilitys, and prevent the elected politicians from having to make a choice between a new squad car or a janitor, new facility upgrades for those who work 3 days a week, or a handful of sweeper operators to clean our streets.

When sworn employees ask they recieve, when civilian ask they hear excuse after excuse. When the pot is only so big and so many hands reach for there piece of the pie it is the politicians who make the same choice to sacrafice the civilian to keep feeding the sworn beast time and again.

Some how it is ok to sacrafice the civilians, constantly taking hit after hit for others mistakes. How is anyone ever going to reform a department if they are never forced to answer for there mistakes? 13 million for the LAPD may day incident, 125 million for Rampart, Rodney King 3.8 million.
Reward for beating media 3-12 hour shifts. Obviously I do not want to single out our brothers in blue nor having
actually been working at the may day event care to pass judgment on those events but to point out the large sums of money that this enforcement machine sucks from the budget.

In the end these overruns come from general funds after there special funds and reserves are used up. Money that could have been used to pay for our salary increases and COLAS instead is used to pay for legal settlements.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have these sworn departments put off equipment upgrades, and suffer the pain or “Share the sacrafice” other departments are forced to make?

Instead budget trickery and contract renegotiation is the order of the day.

We as civilians are called upon to sacrafice yet again, upon looking at this latest contract redo by the council I look back upon the pine trees I surround myself with this holiday weekend, if We continue with the city, constantly giving up everything promised to us when will we get ahead? When will we stand tall like the mighty pine? Unfair, to say the least, poorly written, and lacking in any real protection this new contract reopening attempt is a huge step backwards!

Partially sharing the pain and to be left wide open for more abuse it is time we take a lesson from the mighty pine we stand firm and refuse to accept these miserable terms.
Let us go back to the table and work out these issues so that we can all prosper.

Take a look for yourself the new contract is posted in the forums section for all to read, please note the wording used, it is not what we have been told it would be if you don’t understand ask someone who does or send it over to your own lawyer ask him or her if it leaves you open or protects you.

Enjoy your holiday weekend.