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.
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.
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!
EAA Executive Director Bob Aquino challenges Board of governors for referendum on his future.
Should I stay or should I go now? 
If I go there will be trouble & if I stay it will be Double.
EAA Leader Bob Aquino blasted the elected board of governors going directly to the members laying it all out on the line.
In an email sent directly to the EAA Members, Mr. Aquino reportedly laid out the obvious, EAA will continue to be raided by SEIU, City Management is much cozier with SEIU and Julie Butcher then EAA, and that he wants the membership to decide his fate and their future.
Below are the referendum questions as reportedly posed by Bob Aquino,
Should your Board of Governors immediately negotiate termination to Executive Director Aquino’s contract, and hire a new Executive Director in an effort to establish better rapport with City management?
OR
Do you support keeping Executive Director Aquino through the end of his contract in August of 2011?
What is not mentioned in the email according to sources familiar with EAA is that in order to terminate the contract Aquino has, EAA would be on the hook financially for a very large amount of severance which has caused the cash strapped union & the board of governors to hold off on any action resulting in a large expenditure.
So the real questions are;
Is Aquino really to blame for the missteps during the raid?
Is EAA a sinking ship ripe for a takeover by SEIU?
Do Members realize just how many bad choices the board of governors made during the raid essentially handing over the election to SEIU?
When EAA members face certain decertification attacks from SEIU, the City of LA is determined to fight EAA at every turn, and the budget picture looks grim, who would want to stay?
Should the members have the right to decide on ending the contract of their executive director without interference from the board?
Can EAA afford to terminate Aquino, & is he willing to negotiate the amount of severance?
Whichever way it goes, disclosure is needed on both sides, Aquino must disclose his severance package, and the governors need to step up and take responsibility for their failures during the raid, EAA members will soon enough decide they want the security of a larger union and the bargaining power of SEIU unless EAA steps up it’s game.
If the remaining governors aren’t smart enough to realize they are in a war, maybe the referendum needs to be should EAA members clean house completely?
With the departure of Michael Davies, EAA leadership is struggling for direction, it’s time for the members to decide their future, and they had better decide quickly.
SEIU has spent over 5 million dollars to decertify EAA mou’s.
After all this money spent, MOU 08 is in a Run-Off.
Tomorrow under heavy security, the ballot counting will begin
and the preliminary results released.
As permitted we will be covering this event, and bringing to the Members of Both SEIU & EAA all relevant information.
You will get a text message whenever we update, Only if you set-up your account that way so make sure to do that, it can always be changed later.
Good Luck to both sides and hopefully we can have what many members of SEIU & the Coalition are calling for, an Independent Third Party Election!
Los Angeles Prepares for Layoffs Erip R.I.P.
With the very real possibility of furloughs getting rescinded after a federal appeals judge ruled unconstitutional the Furlough plan implemented by Prince George County.
General Managers are now tasked with making new financial assumptions or resorting to previous layoff lists established to meet the current budgets savings.
Departments have made assumptions on personnel prior to the ERIP savings, it is unknown if there will be additional names and classifications posted to this list and if departments will be forced to generate new lists of classifications to notify for layoffs. These Layoff Lists are available for download in the Forums section for most departments.
Laying off employees would start at the top and work it’s way down, since the bumping rights of senior workers would take effect. Seniority will pay off for many workers who will see vacancies at the top open up with a normal attrition rate of workers retiring and with the layoffs. Layoff Process per classification takes nearly 6 months.
Workers with less then 1 year of service could be in jeopardy if there classification is chosen for layoffs, but then Proprietary departments may choose to absorb the best candidates from those laid off as seniority and proprietary hiring are not mutually inclusive. Proprietary departments will still maintain the right to review personnel folders of candidates from what we have learned unlike other city departments.
ERIP, R.I.P. SEIU has sent out a desperate email to it’s members acknowledging the pending demise of the ERIP plan, you might remember there previous email clearly stated everything was fine and the Mayor CAO Council LACERS and Santa Claus were to blame for the mistakes, possibly misleading there members to hide the fact ERIP was so flawed and destined to fail or bankrupt LACERS.
If SEIU was so wrong on the state of the ERIP, and the outrage from it’s members could they actually publicly support a new Vote with individual options to select on how people would like to “share the sacrifice” run by the city clerk without there biased voting form and misleading propaganda?
We must work together on these issues we must have the facts and we must be allowed a free vote untarnished by the manipulation of the unions or the city.
Council should make a motion calling for the city clerk to prepare voting materials for all vested city employees clearly explaining the options and allowing the members to have a Real Vote on what our future holds.
If all members were given a voice we could actually stomach the sacrifices that lay ahead for us.
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