Published: 1 years 236 days ago
Sacramento Bee: To finish balancing its budget while avoiding more cuts in services, the city of Sacramento badly needed concessions from its largest employee union.
Nearly two months into the fiscal year, there's finally a deal.
Both in the end product and the process, it's less than ideal. But given that it is the result of a negotiation and not an edict, the agreement with Local 39 is the best that can be expected. Council members should grit their teeth and approve the pact, which will save the city about $3.8 million in both this fiscal year and the following one.
The council was to have voted this coming Tuesday night, but officials said Friday that because of the complexities of updating a lengthy contract, the vote will be delayed until Sept. 7.
In the next two years, Local 39's 1,600 or so workers in the utilities, transportation, parks and other departments would take one unpaid furlough day a month and go without salary step increases.
In return, the city promises not to lay off any Local 39 members until at least next June and will preserve 90 jobs that would have been cut this month. There's one possible exception: If there's a "fiscal emergency" in the utilities department – for instance, if voters approve a utility rate rollback in November that the city says would take away $22 million – the no-layoff clause would be waived.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/08/28/2988250/city-strikes-labor-deal-at-a-price.html#ixzz0xukFmdpV
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