Tag Archives: Layoffs

LA City Unions Early Retirement Allegedly Passed, Here comes the fun!

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SEIU Mission Accomplished

SEIU Mission Accomplished

SEIU Claimed (1) Victory and that all MOUS  approved the deal, this is still in question, and that the Early Retirement has Passed.

What does this mean for the workers of the City of Los Angeles?

How can this deal be passed if ALL unions have not completed their vote count?

What is in store for remaining workers if this deal is finally approved?

First, if 2400 People don’t retire, the union must find a solution to that problem and fix the shortfall layoffs will be the only tool left and that will be immediate.

Second,  the City of LA must begin to address the new Unfunded liability in the LACERS plan, this could cause a 100 Million shortfall triggering the Layoff clause in the contract, and finally all it takes is the layoff of one worker, How tempting would it be to layoff one worker on June 30,2011 before our first raise is due? SO they pay us our raises we were due and screw us out of the rest of the deal.

Third, Lawsuits, Count on them.  Hopefully people retiring don’t actually plan on spending their bonus money anytime soon, because Lawsuits can drag on long after many of these workers will have moved on to greener pastures.

Fourth, Bankruptcy, the very tempting relief from all those debts, retirees medical, our medicals, new employees will most likely be switched to defined benifit plans shortly, which would completely eliminate the possibility of current workjers ever enjoying any retirment boost similar to what current retirees will enjoy.

Finally, Workers will be making less, while those who retire early, will Enjoy a 3% Cost of living raise next year and every year for the rest of their life.

Almost forgot, for those who might not have remembered not only will the furloughs hit you very soon, so will the New State Tax Rate.

Glad we have a raise to count on in Two years.

Final Certified Results will be posted as soon as they become available.

(1) Charles Leone SEIU claimed “all mous voted, all unions have passed the erip”

Don’t Be Fooled Coalition agreement is a Bad Deal.

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What do the union reps do when the membership is solidly against the agreement?

Simple, They Lie. Stretch the truth?

Removal of Cash Overtime has NO Exceptions per City Department as written.

Special Events where the an organization pays All Costs, with NO Fee Waiver are the only way.

Some people who share MOU’s are getting told they are exempt.

I looked over the Coalition agreement, and found no section entitled Exempt Employees, No section saying Employees in the following classifications will be exempt.

I’ll break it down like this: One employee in the class of Heavy Duty Truck Operator who regularly operates a Tow Truck will get 5%, guess what, if your not that one employee you don’t qualify, now the union is trying to convince everyone they qualify for overtime.

This is pure desperation, no employee should fall for it, we are in hard times, but if we don’t take our licks now next year we will have this terrible contract, an entire year of missed colas, and be looking at a worse situation.

Remember, all your voting on is what is written, everything else is an empty promise.

The 62 Million $ Lie, Why it’s never enough for the City of LA.

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9-14-2009, Budget committee sends Julie Butcher and the Coalition back to dig in to there numbers to save the city an additional “50-60 Million” so ERIP can pass committee and be presented to council.

9-15-2009 12 hours later and countless sleepless hours the coalition return to the council ready to share there hard work, after all saving 62.5 million can’t be an easy task but the early retirement plan they have worked on for over a year now with it’s flaws, changes, and modifications ratified by All coalition unions, will finally be voted on and sent to the full city council.

GUESS AGAIN! In a Political showdown for the ages Mayor AntonioVillaraigosa slashed the hopes of the Coalition and it’s membership by simply telling council he would veto ERIP if passed.

Thousands of man hours, countless efforts by the coalition meeting after meeting roadblock after roadblock the coalition has overcome all obstacles to present the council the option of ERIP to prevent furloughs and layoffs for 22,000 hard working members of the coalition, only to be blindsided by political grandstanding and ego trips.

ERIP may not have been the best solution, but it is not as bad as having our elected officials incapable of making a decision on balancing the budget no different then the state legislators they themselves criticized.

It is unfair to dangle the ERIP carrot in front of thousands of employees then snatch it away at the last minute demanding further concessions.

City of Los Angeles should have empowered an actuarial study the minute erip was finalized and before the members of the coalition voted, if SEIU and the coalition had known several months ago that this early retirement program would not have been approved because of cost’s it could have had the opportunity to present to it’s membership alternatives it would have had the time to work with the city council in order to make the budget concessions it needed in order to maintain the current workforce at acceptable levels.

City Council should seriously consider the fact LAFD, LAPD, and civilian employees will no longer tolerate the second class status to proprietary departments and will demand the Council make cut’s to it’s programs and salaries themselves.

We can’t layoff the council, but with there handling of the current situation it would not be surprising to see the start of a recall campaign begin to demonstrate our anger not at the failing of the erip, but that of council to seek solutions to the problems facing us all.

Many council members have worked diligently towards a fair solution while looking out for the city as a whole, Mr. Rosendahl, Mr. Parks, and Mr. Huizar have all stepped up to the plate and worked countless hours toward a resolution.

We are so close to a solution it is time we all come together to determine what can and can not work so that the uncertainty is removed.

Super majority, 12 Members of council are needed to pass ERIP today, we need to move on address the budget issues that got us here, and take steps to prevent these budget shortfalls from causing further devastation to the city it’s constituents, and the employees that serve them.

Coalition leaders can not be blamed for the failing of the ERIP, that would fall squarely on the shoulders of Council and the Mayor they have worked to pass the ERIP for many months and this last second political assault is inexcusable.

City of Los Angeles Prepares for Layoffs Erip R.I.P. & Furloughs Ruled Illegal

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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.