CAPE and CCU Bargaining Teams Make Progress In Negotiations; Continue To Work For Better Pay and Benefits For CAPE Members!

CAPE members' current Salary (Bargaining Unit) and Fringe Benefits contracts with Los Angeles County will expire at midnight on September 30, 2015. The Unit Salary contracts are negotiated by the CAPE Bargaining Teams. The Fringe Benefits contract is negotiated by the Coalition of County Unions (CCU), an alliance of ten unions including CAPE representing the combined interests of nearly 35,000 County employees in fringe benefits and various county-wide employee relations issues.

Salary Negotiations Update: After eleven (11) formal negotiating sessions with County management representatives, the CAPE Bargaining Teams have made significant progress on wages but there is still much work to do.

The CAPE Teams entered these negotiations determined to achieve a fair across-the-board COLA increase package for CAPE members, one that helps restore members' purchasing power after the Great Recession. The following chart indicates the salary proposal status as of July 13, 2015.

The County is proposing a 9% total package for a three year term, expiring September 30, 2018. CAPE is proposing a shorter term contract, earlier COLA implementation dates, and an extra three percent COLA which is supported by cost-of-living analyses and growth-in-CPI forecasts.

Although achieving a 9% pay raise offer this early in the negotiations is significant progress compared to past bargaining cycles, there's still much work to do to bridge the current pay raise gap.

Likewise, much work remains in negotiating other important areas of the Salary (Unit) contracts for CAPE members. So far the CAPE Teams have conceded nothing to County management, reached tentative agreements on some minor provisions, completed the process for CAPE members to make their salary inequity presentations, and are continuing to negotiate.

In addition to pay raises, the major issues still under discussion include reducing DPW management's use of contract employees, restoring CAPE-represented staffing to pre-Great Recession levels, gaining more influence for employees over proposed changes to their work schedules, improving special pay practices, expanding training and professional development opportunities for CAPE members, and more.

In some County departments CAPE-represented employees are experiencing recruitment and retention problems. These issues are often the result of below-market salaries, a lack of commitment by Departmental managers to fill vacant positions, and in the case of DPW, an overreliance by managers on private-contract employees to fill the gaps.

At the LA County Assessor's Office, management is seeking to phase out the popular 4/40 work schedule by requiring all new-hires, promotions, and transfers to be conditional on the employee giving up the work schedule. The 4/40 work schedule has been in effect at the Assessor's Office for nearly a decade and has served the public well. It created better working conditions for Assessor's Office staff, and it helps support traffic mitigation on LA's famously congested freeways which is a goal of the Board of Supervisors.

These issues, and others, must be addressed during this round of contract negotiations. Please continue to stand ready to support your CAPE Bargaining Teams in the coming months.