Contract Dispute between CAPE and the Sanitation Districts Goes Unresolved in State Mediation; Fact Finding is Next

On November 10, 2014, the CAPE Negotiating Team for the Technical Support Bargaining Unit and Sanitation Districts’ management met with a State Mediator to attempt to bridge the current gap between the parties over the terms of a successor Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the Unit’s employees. 

CAPE’s Technical Support Unit members rejected a Tentative Agreement between the parties in June over two main sticking points:  First, the Districts’ insistence on a salary pay cut for all Unit employees to, in management’s words, “restore historical salary relationships among all bargaining units” since the CAPE Unit succeeded in preventing the salary cuts accepted by other Districts’ employees more than two years ago, and Second, the Districts’ insistence on implementing a new Employee Contribution to CalPERS in July 2017.  Subsequent negotiations resulted in stalemate, a declaration of impasse, and the request for State Mediation to attempt to help bridge the gap.

CAPE PROPOSALS IN MEDIATION AIMED TO RESOLVE CONTRACT DISPUTE
The CAPE Team went prepared to the Mediation session on November 10th with concrete proposals to address the two main sticking points.  First, the CAPE Team proposed that no pay cut occur and instead the Unit’s employees would forgo some future pay increases under the new COLA Formula, thus allowing the historical salary relationships to reset over time.  Second, since the Districts’ proposal for a new Employee Contribution to CalPERS would not take effect until July 2017, the CAPE Team made a new proposal for a shorter term contract, expiring June 30, 2017, so the parties could negotiate the Employee Contribution to CalPERS during the next round of negotiations.  Unfortunately, Districts’ management went to the Mediation session unwilling to negotiate any further and, therefore, no agreement could be reached.  

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
The next procedural step (after Mediation) is Fact Finding.  A neutral, third-party arbitrator (the Fact Finder) will be mutually selected by the parties to review each side’s contract proposals and all supporting documentation, and hear testimony from each side regarding their justifications.  The Fact Finder will then issue an advisory recommendation on the terms for a compromise settlement.       
    
CAPE representatives initiated the process to select a Fact Finder in early December.  We hope to begin the Fact Finding process by early 2015. 

We will continue to keep CAPE members informed about the status of the Technical Support Unit’s contract negotiations with the Sanitation Districts.