FOR  IMMEDIATE  RELEASE.

LA City Workers.com

July 8^th, 2010  Los  Angeles, California

CITY CIVILIAN EMPLOYEES TO CONTINUE SHUTDOWN OF CITY SERVICES IN WALKOUTS.

Civilian Employees Job Actions July 1,2010 Crippled LA City Services.

In response to the City of Los Angeles Contractual Violations, Illegal furlough implementation, and layoffs Coalition of City Unions represented employees responded by staging a Job Action  on July 01,2010

This Job Action covered numerous departments and crippled LA City Services.

“After reviewing records, in our first job action with advance notice we crippled LAPD dispatching, reduced the number of sweeping routes, reduced illegal dumping removal by half, and numerous other services were slowed, reduced, or completely eliminated on July 01,2010.”

We look forward to showing our worth in our next job action which will involve more classifications and will bring the message home to the council people. No further advance warning will be given to the city, and job actions will be planned to achieve maximum impact.

Coalition of City Unions are prohibited from Officially Backing Job Actions, Employees are still highly encouraged to participate.

Communications Director Paul Castro said, “Union employees are the heart and soul of LA, our Council members and mayor have chosen to increase fees and taxes on the public at the same time they cutback the services people are paying for, it’s inexcusable, we have a contract in which the city must attempt to bond around the loss prior to implementing furloughs and layoffs yet they have ignored our contract and issued pink slips to our members, we are a dedicated workforce and we will now be bringing the fight to the council unless we see an end to the furloughs.”

Currently more then 20,000 civilian workers are employed by the City of Los Angeles and are subject to up to 26 furlough days.

Lacityworkers.com is a website run by and for City of Los Angeles Workers to keep abreast of city business offering discussion forums and blogs as they relate to the City of Los Angeles. Currently over 20,000 visitors a month visit the website for news and information relating to there employment.

Website: http://www.lacityworkers.com

Contact: Director of Communications

Letter from the President: Layoffs Don’t Make Sense for LA
June 1, 2010 By Bob Schoonover SEIU 721 President

Bob Schoonover

In January we were facing a $600 million shortfall as projected by the CAO. Here in late May the ever-changing number seems to be about $100 million.

The City’s adopted a budget with a bunch of holes in it. The city wants to fill those holes with 761 worker layoffs now, add 1,000 more later, and throw 26 furlough days on top of all that–or fill it with worker concessions.

In meetings this spring with the CAO, Mayor’s office, and City Council, union members and leaders have had one consistent message: We won’t take any steps backward, and we have a better solution. Last year we made a tremendous sacrifice, voting to put off our contract raises and give up hours to see our city through this crisis. That’s hurt my family, and I know it’s hurt yours too.

So when politicians talk about how we need to “step up” with concessions, that’s why I told the Los Angeles Times two weeks ago, “We’ve already done that.” That’s why sanitation workers drove trash trucks with signs reading, “Don’t give up on LA, Mr. Mayor”–because to me, that’s what rejecting our sacrifice, cutting services and furloughing workers would mean.

What happens if the city lays off a Coalition member? Under our agreement, if even one Coalition worker is laid off we all get our raises. The City Council voted unanimously for that plan, so they can’t pretend they don’t remember.

Why would we give the city new concessions when we can’t get them to take the one we already gave? Without real leadership at City Hall, there’s no end in sight.

Here’s the alternative: Our work to find new revenues and management cost-savings has already shrunk the shortfall. Some City Council members have really stood strong for city services.  Street Services GM Bill Robertson is already on record saying that the general managers of the city had a plan for cuts without layoffs. This budget hole is not structural–it’s only there because of the recession. So it makes no sense to fill it with layoffs–a structural change that does long-term damage to the city’s ability to deliver the services people need in good times and bad.

Let’s look at the big picture. The city workforce has already reduced itself in just the last year by 3,500 workers through early retirement and normal attrition–down to 1997 levels. If you add those 700 to 1,700 layoffs coupled with furloughs the effects on public service and public safety will be dramatic.

It’s going to take the mayor and elected officials to get us out of this.

They said it all along, We want you to give up more.

They weren’t kidding. Early Retirement Savings and furlough hours weren’t enough to satisfy the Council and Mayor. LAPD Continues to hire LAFD budgeted for nearly 80 Million in overtime alone, Civilian workers will have to either give up the contract signed just last year and make up for some 63 – 110 million so that the Mayor can keep his anti gang program in force, this anti gang program it’s worth noting has nothing to do with the LAPD, it funds no cops and in the past has funneled money for gangs to buy guns.

With Inflation skyrocketing, convincing LA City Workers to take furloughs and pay cuts on top of giving up contractually guaranteed raises due to layoffs will be nearly impossible.

If civilian workers hold their ground they stand to gain a 5.75% raise and have more control over the furlough situation, if they re-open the contract again it would indicate the failing of the Coalition of City Unions and SEIU in particular.

All along Bob Schoonover has said we were standing firmly against any further concessions, “we gave enough”
“we will not give back again” were his words and now the fight is on to save jobs and save the salary of the city worker.

Taxpayers won’t pay less with this new budget, they will pay more and watch as the basic services they expect a city to provide vanish.

SEIU will be under the gun to begin working proactively to have job actions to highlight what the loss of it’s civilian workforce would mean to the public, or risks getting stuck behind the 8 ball. This coming just days after UAW forces Shutdown Boeing in a labor strike.

Our contract calls upon the City of LA to take steps to prevent layoffs, they have failed miserably at those steps. If Layoffs are imposed our salary rates are advanced by 1 year making a gain of 5.75% in the pay of the workers covered under the coalition contract. It is unclear how EAA members will be hit by this budget or unrepresented employees and members of the SEIU professionals organization.

City Council President Eric Garcetti estimated that the unions representing city workers would have to come up with “probably about $100 million” in concessions such as pay cuts, increases in their medical and pension contributions and elimination of bonuses within the next month and a half to save jobs and prevent drastic service reductions.

The Engineers and Architects Association filed on behalf of 424 named plaintiffs in Los Angeles Superior Court.

EAA Claims, they filed grievances and the City denied or ignored them, and failed to arbitrate any of them, violating their contract.

They also claim furloughs were not implemented to on other unions, however Coalition employees reopened their contract and other employees did not take the COLA resulting in reduced furlough hours.

EAA & the City of LA bargained keeping their cola or taking furlough hours, MCIA inspectors followed suit and took the same path with the same results.

The hope is that the contract called for the increase, and employees should not have a valid contract forced open with a penalty imposed for not reopening, the City of LA had other options and failed to implement them with Sworn personnel instead choosing to take the largest cuts out on civilian employees.

EAA Has retained Trina Roderick with Levy, Stern & Ford to represent them in the case.

Same story new year.

Layoffs doomsday oh but wait give up 26 furlough days for EAA Members and 16 for coalition take a pay cut and we will call it even.

So So sorry to disappoint the Mayor but neither the Coalition of City Unions & SEIU, or EAA are considering anything less then a NO GIVEBACK policy.

With the departure of Bob Aquino from EAA reported earlier this week, and confirmed yesterday and the coalition of City Unions firm stance on no givebacks the Mayor and his scare tactics have only worked to solidify the workforce and the unions.

After working so hard to pass an early retirement plan that the workers footed the bill for and having all of the credit for that stolen by the mayor, the IBEW DWP fiasco giving them a 20% raise followed weeks later by a call for two day a week furloughs of civilian employees to pay for it civilian employees have had enough.

Most members of the unions can see for themselves the vacant positions cut and they understand how hard things would be on them financially if they did take any further pay cuts, if the Mayor does go through with a small number of layoffs, cost of living raises get moved forward which can only help most employees.

“We have sacrificed already,” said Cheryl Parisi, chair of the Coalition of City Unions. “We had an agreement to forgo our raises and not face a furlough. The city is going back on its word.”

“Each of the layoffs in his budget represent a service – a park, a library, a public safety service – that would be cut back,” said Bob Schoonover, president of SEIU Local 721.

Our message is strong, Keep LA Strong and Keep La WORKING!

Coalition of City Unions released their own budget which the Mayor has ignored keeping people working and the quality of life in LA.

It is clear and has been for a while this rhetoric is aimed at taking money out of our pocket and we are over the games that city hall wants to play we are organized and we will fight any attempt at layoffs or wage concessions for the membership.

It is time the mayor who is under recall, and the council understand, We have done our part now it’s their turn, get to work and fix LA don’t damage the workforce for years to come by looking at them as the only budget solution, it is shortsighted and foolish to keep going back to the well until it runs dry.

No Furloughs and No Givebacks Simple enough.

We simply can’t trust city hall and will fight them all the way.