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.
How much more, if any, is that than the increase in the cost of living?
Keep in mind there are MANY more benefits that most California city and county employees get. One of them is a very liberal retirement system. Some can retire at 50 with 3/4 pay and healthcare for life which includes drug benefits. Many have very liberal work rules, flex days off, accumulated vacation, sick and flex days so that a good worker could retire and be paid the equiv. of a year or more in pay. They can't be fired, it's hard to even discipline them and workers comp fraud runs rampant in the state.
The median state income is $34,000K a year.
It would be difficult to find a single county worker anywhere in California who makes less than $34,000 per year.
I think it'd be difficult to find any country worker in the entire state making less than $40,000 per year.
Show me and I'll believe it. I live in California, know many clerk level city and state workers and ALL of them make $50,000 or more plus plus plus benefits, retirement, health etc. Please stop this "poor county worker" routine on me.
Besides Medicaid, I'd honestly have to check to see if we have any of the others. I know we don't have school nurses.
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