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City of Los Angeles reaches impasse with Engineers & Architects Association

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Miguel Santana LA City CAO

Miguel Santana LA City CAO

After meeting over 30 times in the last 8 months On November 16, 2011 In accordance with Employee Relations Board Rule 9.02, the City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana filed with the Employee Relations Board a unilateral  written notice that the Engineers & Architects Association; representing the Administrative Unit (MOU 1 ), the Supervisory Administrative Unit (MOU 20), the Technical Rank and File Unit (MOU 21), and the Supervisory technical Unit (MOU 19) had reached impasse on major issues in the-meet and confer process on a new  Memoranda of Understanding for those four bargaining units.

EAA has made claims the city has attempted to bargain in bad faith and impose certain conditions upon the membership of EAA without a vote.

We will present the facts clearly for the members of EAA to decide if anyone is bargaining in Bad Faith or if they need to demand a vote on the “Last, Best, Final” offer by management.

Issues in Dispute

Terms and conditions of employment as contained in MOUs 1, 19, 20 & 21 as related to:

Redefinition of Overtime Threshold

Lowering the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA) exempt status to all employees making over $85,000. Anyone making over $85,000 would become an exempt salaried employee.

Suspension of Bonus Payments

Temporary suspension of some bonus payments which the city can ultimately eliminate.

Health Care Premium Sharing

Once rejected by EAA members, after a second vote it was ratified by EAA Members we examine the Health Care Premium sharing issue.

This would simply continue the 5% share of medical costs the members approved, Coalition members have agreed to nearly 10 million in cost sharing in 2012 & 2013 as well as numerous concessions.Here are some quotes on the issue the last time it was debated. Former Executive Director Michael Davies “If there is no agreement, and the city should seek to declare an impasse, since they are already armed with a declaration of economic emergency, the city could proceed swiftly to impose unilateral terms and conditions of employment on our members that could easily include a 10 percent employee contribution to health care and other ‘take-aways,’”

EAA declared “It’s not enough simply to say no and feel that somehow this storm is going to be weathered and that within 12 months or 24 months the city will be back into a situation where they can afford to provide a 100 percent subsidy for a healthcare premium,” said Davies. “Those days have ended.”  “It was clear the city could no longer subsidize us at 100 percent,”

Matt Szabo previously stated “… the city is likely to impose these healthcare provisions and more on those who opt out of the deal.”

Retiree Health Care Contributions

Engineers and Architects Association signed a letter saying that it is not “categorically opposed” to a larger contribution toward its retirement benefits in coming years reported the LA Times, now EAA is seeking to avoid the Retiree health care contribution that nearly all other unions have agreed to pay in order to secure and vest retiree healthcare.

This issue does not have the same legal standing that the Coalition members including the LACAA had;

EAA entered into an agreement to move retirement benefits into the MOU arena most likely altering the vested status accepting benefits (reduction of furlough hours,etc.) in exchange for the promise of future contributions. Courts have long ruled benefits negotiated can also be modified or ended without the protections of vested benefits.

EAA would Not be facing the court with the same case, nor would they be standing on the same legal grounds the City Attorneys would be. It is the Opinion of LA City Workers.com that at this time EAA Members do not hold a vested right in the same manner City Attorney and others who rejected the deal did.EAA Members gave up the vested benefit knowingly entering it into the MOU arena thereby removing the Vested benefit protection. Arguments could be made to defend the vested status but they are far less likely to succeed then the challenges by those units which rejected the deal.

It would be misleading to present to the members a situation where they believe the city is attempting to impose upon them something new, when in fact these are previously agreed to items. It is unfortunate that the leadership at the time lead the members down the path of concession, for these sins the membership will pay for many years to come.

It is the members decision what steps to take, but all of the facts must be honestly and openly debated, one can not paint the Office of the CAO as the villain when the facts are clear EAA is obligated to bargain in good faith and can not ignore the contractual obligations it has entered into. This is something which will be debated in the ERB on the 19th of December and I do not see how EAA could prevail with the information I currently am reviewing.I am NO fan of the CAO, but in this case it would appear he is not attempting to gain much from the members which he doesn’t have a right to. Members need take notice of these events regardless of union as the same mistakes could be made and cost them serious financial cuts in the future. If organized collectively with sworn and civilian we send a message that the cuts are done we can move forward otherwise the CAO will continue to implement his 3, & 5 year plans at the expense of the apathetic workforce, become involved and elect strong leaders, end the participation of those who voted in favor of concessions immediately ad understand that as union members we either participate or we face the consequences.

We are not lawyers, we present a legal opinion as a matter of discussion only and look forward to a lively debate. Attorneys feel free to comment.

From the Legally binding Agreement signed and entered into by the City and EAA:

LETTER OF INTENT
TECHNICAL RANK AND FILE – MOU 21
LACERS AND RETIREE HEALTH BENEFITS

Management and the Engineers and Architects Association (EAA) mutually
acknowledge the dramatic increase in the cost of the LACERS pension program, and
that the retiree healthcare benefit is one of the driving forces behind the increased costs. EAA acknowledges that Management has set a target employee contribution rate of 9% for active employees, and that Management is (1) actively exploring creation of a LACERS “Tier 2” pension program for new hires; and (2) preparing a proposal which would require that current retirees contribute financially to reducing the cost of their healthcare benefit. EAA acknowledges that an increase in employees’ LACERS contributions will be proposed by Management as part of the successor MOU negotiations which will begin in Spring, 2011. EAA has no categorical opposition to an increase in active employee contribution rates, and acknowledges that this is an issue to be bargained. EAA, which does not represent retired City employees, does not object to retirees contributing financially to reduce the cost of their healthcare benefit to LACERS.

ARTICLE 1.4 FULL UNDERSTANDING
Management and the Association acknowledge that during the meet and confer process, each had the unlimited right and the opportunity to make demands and proposals on any subject within the scope of representation and that this MOU constitutes the full and entire understanding of the parties regarding all such demands and proposals. The parties mutually understand that any prior or existing understandings or agreements by the parties, whether formal or informal, are hereby superseded or terminated.
The parties mutually agree that this MOU may not be opened at any time during its term for any reason, except by mutual consent of the parties hereto.
It is mutually understood that any changes mutually agreed to shall not be binding upon the parties unless and until they have been implemented in accordance with Article 1.3.
The waiver or breach of any term or condition of this MOU by any party hereto, shall not
constitute a precedent in the future enforcement of any of its terms and provisions.

These acknowledgements covered the following units: Bargaining Units Administrative Unit (MOU 1), Supervisory Administrative Unit (MOU 20),Technical Rank and File Unit (MOU 21), Supervisory Technical Unit (MOU 19)

 

SEIU721 MOU 08 & 17 Impasse. IBEW Always Wins.

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SEIU 721, The Bigger Better Union has found itself in quite a bind.

It can not under any circumstances surrender on health care or it would lose the Coalition of City unions support and it would cement it’s future & decertification of members would not be able to wait.

Miguel Santana, our CAO, has managed to catch a DUI in a City Vehicle, get arrested, convicted, go to treatment and still manage to beat down every union who comes to the Table.

Well Except IBEW who’s massive organization and turnout along with business reps who took none to kindly to the Councils weak attempt at playing with their pensions left the LA City Council with it’s tail between it’s legs.

Mayor Hopeful and Civilian, Sworn, Part-time and full time workers nemesis Eric Garcetti lead the way attacking pensions like they were the spawn of satan.

IBEW has from what I understand Black balled his future Mayoral run, he is finished in LA politics for now.

MOU 08 & 17 has had impasse declared on them and SEIU has remained virtually silent on the matter.

Many employees had no idea very shortly they will lose important benefits and/or pay large amounts of money to their medical care.

Open & Transparent, that is what they seeked when they came over and that is what they were promised.

Many of the loudest critics are blaming the CAO, the Mayor, the governor and some actually embarrassed themselves by blaming “big oil”.

Well I would like to point out the following:

Mayor Villaraigosa, the CAO, and the Council have not kept the intentions they hold for Public Employees secret.

This is NOT news to me or anyone who reads my blogs, follows us on twitter, or is within 20 miles of my worksites.

SEIU chose the following in order to fight for it’s members.

Protest Mayors  Oscar Party, while having the media Relations person whose salary we pay demand we stop chanting anything that would actually upset the mayor or anyone in the area.

Nothing vulgar was said, she is incompetent and I demand she be fired and so do hundreds of other employees she should resign in order to save her future career.

SEIU also chose to push budget blame onto others.

Parking lot owners, Banks, and Wall Street.

Claiming uncollected debt would save the city from what I understand very little if any media attention was given to these events.

Mayor, and CAO said thanks we need to do better at collecting, promptly looked at outsourcing collections, and created a headache for ASCFME who had to fight that due to SEIU’s insistence that we need to do better collecting. $0.00 of the future collected debt will be credited towards the budget shortfall in favor of the unions.

SEIU has refused to purchase a single advertisement, Dan Mariscal has been pushing for SEIU to purchase advertising since at least March of this year.

Idea after Idea has been ignored and they have fallen flat on their face.

MOU 089 & 17 Members have vowed to decertify SEIU if they don’t begin doing something other then the third grade demonstrations they have so far failed at.

Many of the reps agree that the direction the union is going is miserable and have been getting louder and louder.

SEIU is second to none in organizing, they fail at representing. They also fail to recognize when they have made mistakes instead burying their head in the sand and staying the course similar to our fight on terror, that’s working out well too.

SEIU was recently emailed a laundry list of suggestions and possible job actions etc.

A new course of action, Detailed action plans.

John Tanner, Julie Butcher, Charles Leone, Bob Schoonover,  and J.J. Straight were all recipients of this email, each was asked for thier opinion and how those ideas could help the members succeed.

Each was asked to respond, Each one read the email, each one failed to respond.

If SEIU is doing so good with it’s course of actions why is the Mayor releasing in a few days his new budget plans continuing his attack on public service workers?

Why is Miguel Santana  preparing his departmental outline asking for more cuts coming second week of November?

Why is SEIU not representing the members in the manner they deserve?

In fairness to J.J. Straight she has been the only one of the above mentioned employees to actually respond to phone calls and she has made an attempt to work with us in carrying out the work that needs to be done and she has actually been a surprising breath of fresh air for SEIU members looking for change!

She has found herself under attack though as some people are hell bent on keeping the old regime in power.

This is another story for another time, right now the entire membership is under attack and SEIU needs to be accountable because by this time next year MOU 08 & 17 will be an Association affiliated with AFT if they don’t Get things done and quickly.

HAD SEIU actually taken our ideas to heart and paid attention to the members instead of sending members to Arizona to protest, or to Washington D.C. in these troubled times, MOU 08 & 17 along with other employees would not have been in this situation.

Detention Officers have Demonstrated a No Confidence vote in SEIU hiring an outside party to negotiate on behalf of them, Paying out of pocket.

General Services Police Officers have Demonstrated a No Confidence vote in SEIU hiring an outside party to negotiate on behalf of them, Paying out of pocket.

Who will be the next to go?

Remember when I said, “the grass isn’t always greener on the other side”

MOU 8-17 are hearing those words ring true now.

See for yourself the documents declaring impasse.

DOWNLOAD THE MOU 08 & 17 PACKAGE DOCUMENTS HERE!

MOU 8-17 Package

EAA Union MOU Ratification Ballot Results

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Preliminary MOU Ratification Ballot Results

Friday, Jul 30, 2010
Ballots were cast individually by bargaining unit and are as follows:

MOU 1                 Rejected
MOU 19               Rejected
MOU 20               Rejected
MOU 21               Ratified

* Third party independent ballot count.

EAA In Crisis? Engineers and architects association could be sinking ship.

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EAA In Crisis

Tuesday May 04, 2010 Los Angeles, CA Story by LA City Workers.com Writers

Executive Director Bob Aquino, Gone.

Assistant Executive Director Patti Loparo Gone.

MOU 08, Gone.  MOU 17 Gone. External Union Organizers Gone.

What is left and what is ahead for EAA.

In the last few months things have gone from bad to worse for EAA the staff has been leaving or have been asked to leave in record numbers, the one person left to run the show is the Interim Executive Director Michael Davies and 4 Member reps. That number was reduced after the crippling loss of the two units last year to Powerhouse SEIU, an International Union with experienced labor leaders and organizers who are experienced in picking the low hanging fruit from the union tree.

Bob Aquino Former Executive director recently departed now his Assistant executive director Patti has joined him rather then taking over as executive she has reportedly left EAA as well.

With Weeks left in the current contract EAA members have begun to quietly ask themselves what’s next for our union and our employment.

CAO Taking No Prisoners

Currently EAA members are left to bargain in a climate where employees are being asked to take a 16% cut in pay and additional benefit cuts, the CAO is left with very little room to make cuts and has been directed by the mayor to achieve the cuts from those who are not in contracts first.

Best last final? What will the best last final offer be to EAA members? Currently talks of 0% for the first year and 2% the second with a third year possibly reaching 3% is the best they have been looking at faced with a coalition unwilling to give back any further and the threat of layoffs and furloughs continuing for EAA members the CAO has the upper-hand and the union is left to bargain with an Interim Executive Director.

Interim Executive Director Michael Davies is a Transportation Planner for the City of LA, a far cry from the ranks of other labor leaders in Los Angeles who have decades of experience behind them.

EAA Members are quietly asking themselves if they made the wrong choice in previous decertification movements and this year will be key to getting those answers, two unions bargaining separately for it’s membership, with the same CAO.

Who will end up getting a better deal? Will the two sides be played against each other to garner more concessions?

What is clear is that EAA is having serious staffing issues at the most critical time in the most volatile economic climate in a hundred years it is down to a handful of staff, and nothing positive is on the horizon, just the opposite SEIU is reportedly getting hundreds of member inquiries from EAA members asking if they will have the chance to get out of EAA and join SEIU.

SEIU had no comment on it’s plans to allow the EAA members to join it’s LA City Professionals organization but rumor has it they will allow the eaa members to vote on leaving for the Purple professionals side.

Having lost it’s leadership, several of it’s largest Units and left with a transportation planner as Executive director, the outlook is not good for EAA with several of it’s units having voted so closely the last time to decert the financial hit that losing thousands of members has taken on the EAA budget and the lack of staff a decertification attempt would be crippling to EAA and the membership is ultimately going to have a choice to make Stay with EAA or take a chance on SEIU which is one of the largest unions in the country all this while EAA is still furloughed.

Only time will tell which method of thinking will prevail but it is clear from EAA staff actions to the conversations in the hallways, things are not looking good at EAA.

One positive note the EAA IUPA Local 8000 website is looking very good and the staff responsible for that are doing a fantastic job!