President's Message: New CAPE Members Add to Collective Strength of Our Union By Carlos Clayton, CAPE President

We continue to see the positive difference CAPE makes in the careers of L.A. County professionals when we join and participate in our union. CAPE’s Negotiating Teams and our representatives at the Coalition of County Unions (CCU) fringe benefits bargaining table achieved major gains for CAPE members during the 2015 contract negotiations. These include a 10% pay raise package, significant additional funding for our rising healthcare premiums, an extra week of vacation time, a new Cesar Chavez Holiday starting in 2017, and more. All that we have achieved, however, would not be possible without the ongoing support of CAPE members – new and seasoned alike.

For this edition I want to welcome CAPE’s newest members and thank the nearly 2,000 of you who have paid dues and supported CAPE for many years. CAPE Board and Staff representatives presented information about the union and the benefits of membership to new classes of employees at several Departments in the fall/winter 2015. I am pleased to report that virtually all of them joined CAPE. This is nothing new, and it continues a trend of increasing union membership, strength, and activity which CAPE’s leadership and staff have cultivated since before the Great Recession.

The new generation of L.A. County professionals understands LA County is a giant employer, and to ensure the best possible careers for County professionals we must stick together and speak to management in one, united voice. There are nearly 100,000 employees of L.A. County working at 36 different Departments. As one employee at DPW, the Assessor’s Office, Regional Planning, or any Department where CAPE members work, how effective would we be at convincing County management to give us a fair pay raise or to contribute more money to CHOICES to cover our rising healthcare premiums? None of us would stand a chance on our own. That’s why we have CAPE. When County professional employees stick together management knows they must answer to us, and that’s how we get results.

I encourage any remaining non-members or agency fee-payers to help make CAPE the strongest union possible by joining today. We’re all in this together!

August 2015 – New CAPE Members from Regional Planning Dept. are joined in the back row by CAPE Board Member Jonathan Bell (2nd from left), former Board Member and current CAPE Delegate Josh Huntington (3rd from left), and CAPE Delegate Nicholas D’Amico (far right).

September 2015 – Thirty new Appraiser Trainees from the L.A. County Assessor’s Office joined CAPE during their orientation session.

September 2015— New CAPE Members from DPW are flanked by Board Members Nelson Manabat (far left) and Kevin Petrowsky (far right) who also donated blood that day as part of a joint DPW / LA County blood drive.

November 2015— More new CAPE Members from Dept. of Regional Planning add to CAPE’s near 90% membership at that Department.

November 2015— Another large class of new hires joins CAPE at DPW adding to our collective strength!