Posted on 10/22/2006 8:56:46 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
The Board of Supervisors and Los Angeles County's largest union have reached a contract deal that will give more than 50,000 workers the largest salary and merit increases in decades, officials said Friday.
The tentative three-year contract, which must be approved by the supervisors and ratified by members of Service Employees International Union, Local 660, would give most union members raises totaling up to 15.5 percent.
The contract also calls for a 10 percent increase in the county's contribution to employee health plans and a benefit that would require the county to pay $75 to $375 a month to help employees pay for child care.
The contract would boost some workers' pay as much as 30 percent and union officials hailed the deal as key to helping the county retain and hire more nurses and help lift workers who now qualify for food stamps out of poverty.
"I think it's a very good settlement for everyone concerned," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said Friday. "The SEIU led the way three years ago when they took a 5 percent pay raise for three years. They made a huge sacrifice in the interest of the county when we needed help - when we were faced with the state ripping off our property tax dollars, when we were still in a recessionary period and when our revenues were in jeopardy. They took a courageous step and were criticized by the labor movement for doing it.
"We believe this is sustainable. We've tried to zero it in to give an extra boost to people at the lower end of the income spectrum. A lot are making $25,000 to $30,000 a year, which for a family of four is poverty wages in L.A. And we've tried to sweeten the pot by offering incentives for child care, which is a very major economic concern for people with kids who want to work."
Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen wouldn't say how much the total package would cost until its ratified. But Janssen said the county can afford it because of rising property tax collections and the recent passage of a measure that prevents the state from raiding local coffers.
The tentative contract follows months of protests by SEIU members who said it has become so expensive to live in Southern California that many county workers now qualify for food stamps.
While thousands of county employees make more than $100,000 a year, about 3,000 clerks, nursing attendants, cooks, custodians and laundry workers make less than $30,000 a year and qualify for welfare benefits.
Since 1993, SEIU members wages have been frozen several times to avoid layoffs during county government fiscal crises. In the past three years, SEIU members received 5 percent in raises while the cost of living rose 11 percent.
Earlier this year, the county reached an agreement with the sheriff's unions to give them up to 18.5 percent in pay raises and other benefits through the next three years in an effort to help recruit deputies.
Under the SEIU contract, nurses in particular would benefit.
"I know the nurses are getting 18 to 30 percent increases," said SEIU spokesman Mark Tarnawsky. "What they negotiated was a series of step increases. The pay was so low before that the county couldn't even hire nurses."
Under the deal, starting salaries for nurses will be $61,644 a year, Janssen said.
"I'm glad to hear this," Supervisor Don Knabe said. "The nurses have been a concern of mine for quite awhile. We are in a very difficult situation from a competitive standpoint. Even with this significant increase they have agreed to, there are a lot of things private hospitals are offering nurses, from closing costs on homes to you name it."
Late last year, county nurses said public hospitals lacked 900 nurses to meet safe staffing levels and stressed that the situation was endangering patients' lives. They urged the county to raise nurse salaries to help retain and hire more nurses.
"Nurses are at a premium because of state standards for staffing ratios and the shortage of nurses," Janssen said. "The county, as long as we operate hospitals and clinics, will have to have nurses. And we now spend about $100 million a year on nurse registries. So it's cheaper for us to hire nurses."
Under the contract, workers would get two 2.75 percent half-step increases in 2007 and 2008, and a 4 percent raise retroactive to Oct. 1, according to details on the union's Web site. Workers also would get a 3 percent raise on Jan. 1, 2008, and another 3 percent raise on Jan. 1, 2009.
Tarnawsky said the child-care benefit is a significant gain.
"That's a tremendous thing for our members, lots of whom are single moms with kids who struggle exactly with this problem," Tarnawsky said.
Are these the kinds of increases YOU are getting in YOUR position in the PRIVATE sector?
The tentative three-year contract, which must be approved by the supervisors and ratified by members of Service Employees International Union, Local 660, would give most union members raises totaling up to 15.5 percent.
The contract also calls for a 10 percent increase in the county's contribution to employee health plans and a benefit that would require the county to pay $75 to $375 a month to help employees pay for child care.
The contract would boost some workers' pay as much as 30 percent and union officials hailed the deal as key to helping the county retain and hire more nurses and help lift workers who now qualify for food stamps out of poverty.
This is the Fantasy half of the equation/ingredients that make Liberals.
Was the question ever raised--Where is the money coming from?
Of course, the answer is THE TAXPAYERS.
Was the idea that ILLEGAL ALIENS do not pay taxes, and that Illegal aliens are a considerable fraction of L A's Population ever mentioned?
So, in their mind, you just award a wage, and there is this well that never goes dry and has unlimited capacity where officials can draw from for wages.
NO wonder 25% of of Los Angeles hs moved to another State
In a few years, you will have to choose which Civil War you want to start first, the one between the legal Americans and the illegal invading aliens, or the one between the private sector which is getting their salary cut or getting laid off, losing their retirement and health care, and watching their taxes, local, state and federal, go out of sight, and the public sector employees who are getting fat raises and cost-of-living adjustments, better health care for life, and cushy retirements, all paid for by those luckless private sector losers.
And the Republicans and Democrats just don't give a damn.
$375 a month for CHILD CARE? Don't have them if you can't afford them.
That is unsustainable. SOMEONE is going to have to pay for this, Guess who? You can bet rich Liberals will protect their tax loopholes.
What's laughable is that the very people "celebrating" and anticipating these lovely wage increases won't be so happy when they realize they won't see any of it. They will be taxed away.
Democrats will never learn that this kind of sillyness is inflationary. The only way to raise the standard of living is to lower it's costs, rather than to keep asking for more money, which in turn comes from increased taxes, raising the cost of living. An endless cycle which began when nanny state idealists began raising taxes to pay for the government institutions which eat up most of the money and help no-one.
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship." - Alexander Tyler
amen
democracy in america...de toqueville (?) to paraphrase, america will cease to be a great power when her people begin to vote for themselves government largesse.
'the truth is out there"
Exactly why we have a constitutional Republic. The only thing democratic is the election process.
Private enterprise is supposed to provide the needs of the people. Government was never supposed to get into private business, just handle the nations business and national security.
I can see what the next demand is from this particular articel. Daycare space. They will be screaming that there aren't any government run daycares to begin early socialist indoctrination.
Then they will be demanding more money because $375 a month isn't enough to pay for expensive, government run daycare.
After taxes, I got $8.50 a week. It could have been worse, 25% of the staff got laid off.
This is just another example of government workers living in a fantasy world.
The contract is nothing but a payoff to get them to vote for Angelides for governor.
Simply breathing is merit enough for the bureaucrats.
I have to deal with county bureaucrats often, and I can say, I have never seen such an inefficient, wasteful organization in my lifetime.
As an example, almost 300 new cel phones were stolen from the water department. They did not report the phones stolen to the cel phone carriers, and paid the bills on each of those phones for 2 years.
Avg life is 200 years. oops.
No doubt. But no worries. They'll raise the money to pay for this. SIN taxes are always popular and easy to sneak in budgets. Booze, cigarette and gas taxes, licence fee increases, and other regalatory fees are always a handy tool that makes it appear that general tax increases are being held down, but these back door taxes can add a lot to the general revenue cookie jar.
Why does the county hire nurses?
See post#16.
Medicaid, county run nursing homes, schools, public health services.
ref. voting oneself government largesse....
think it was de toqueville in "Democracy in America"
a number of the founding fathers might have said the same....not sure.....one might check the federalist papers.
thanks for your post. going to make me read some more.
We believe in the union, the worker almighty, creator of overtime wages and more ..
and to the contract for which it exists, unbroken, till we decide to .. screw you, and to you and to it.
Yep .. it's a religion .. services once a month at the hall or bar .. bring your tithe.
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