Engineers Union Stages Wage Protest
Snips from the LA Times on the escalating labor dispute with the EAA...Tangling downtown traffic during the morning rush hour, more than 300 white-collar city workers picketed Tuesday outside the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to demand the same pay raises given that agency's workers.
Although the demonstration did not stop dozens of DWP employees from crossing the picket line and going to work, union head Robert Aquino said the picket is part of an escalating protest that may soon involve some of the 8,000 members of the Engineers and Architects Assn. walking off the job.
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An hour later, appearing on radio station KFWB-AM (980), Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the city cannot afford to give the engineers union members the same contract approved in September by the City Council for about 8,000 DWP workers.
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"I'm going to draw the line where I have responsibility for negotiating," Villaraigosa said. "We've got to live within our means."
Blog Away!
Posted by Anonymous @ 12/07/2005 08:35:00 AM
28 Comments:
AV knew about the negoiations during the mayoral campaign about DWP getting the big raise and said nothing. WHY? Because they contributed to his campaign. Then he hid and said nothing during council proceedings like a gutless swine he is. No leadership what so ever. You watch all the unions come out and go after him. He can't hide now.
I don't blame the EAA for being pissed off, and they should continue to protest AV. If AV was really sincere about living "within our means", he should have demanded the DWP union renegotiate the Hahn administrations contract. As the LA Weekly noted, an opinion from the City Attorney's office said the council could do this in good faith. That was where the line in the sand should have been drawn.
The EAA has educated union members who deserve at least equal to what the DWP received. AV as union organizer would demand nothing less. If he has any sense of fairness, he should find a way to make this work. If not, this just looks like AV's way of rewarding the IBEW's higher campaign contributions, and this will be the AV legacy.
Interesting that AV is being knocked around for something that Hahn worked out.
Let's not forget something the IBEW contract was written by Hahn. All Hahn all the time -- every news story you see written has that fact very clearly written. For all the praises you bloggers give to McGreevy and Zahniser -- let's also givev them cedit for putting the blame squarely on the man who put us in this mess. Jim Hahn.
EAA contributed to AV - Yes. Now regardless of who contributed you see a mayor doing the right thing for the city.
UTLA contributed to AV and you see a Mayor doing the right thing for the City's students by fighting for school accountability.
CalTran Engineers contributed to AV - and you saw the Mayor fight them for the cheaper version to get the car-pool lane in the San Fernando Valley.
Regardless of who contributed to this Mayor, you see him doing the right thing everyday for Angelenos 24/7.
And to my old friend archie, you claim in your post at 9:21am that you are glad the union is demanding these things, because as you say it shows lack of leadership (or little leadership to be more accurate). What would someone with a ALOT of leadership do in this same exact position?
Tell the union you got your deal -- or tell them the City can't afford it?
I believe like most sane people that telling them the City can't afford in the face of a union that contributed and produced ads for his campaign is ALOT of leadership.
More than what you showed in episode #65 when you were congregating with the KKK.
10:22
You're missing the point. Real leadership would have been standing up to the DWP union and renegotiating their Hahn contract, which AV and council could have legally done, but didn't (probably cuz he's old buddies with the IBEW head who gave him mucho $$, more than the EAA). "Doing the right thing" for the city, as you put it, does not mean rewarding one union and screwing the other.
1. Give them the raise.
2. Layoff 1/3 of them. Don't replace others that retire.
3. Outsource more future projects.
It's true that the City can't afford to provide contracts to other unions that are in the same dollar figures as the one that IBEW employees got. Villaraigosa is right about that.
But if the City's budget is in that bad of shape, why did he lobby for his 2 Deputy Chiefs of Staff to get pay raises, bringing their salary caps to over $180,000?! The L.A. Times published what Marcus Allen is making (I think it was in the low 180s) and I'm sure that Jimmy Blackman is in the same ballpark.
It could be that the adjustment doesn't change the Mayor's budget figures, but rather gives him flexibility within his budget. But even so, it sends a bad message when the word around City Hall is that unless your one of his top staff members, you'd make more money selling oranges off the 101 fwy exits on Los Angeles Street than working in his administration. I'm sure that those staffmembers aren't feeling the love right now.
All of this makes it look as if the Mayor has a bad case of "Do as I say, not as I do".
The points here are that we need to make sure that contract negotiations are being done right from the beginning to avoid being put against the wall like the City was with the IBEW workers. But this effort has to be lead by example from the Mayor and make sure that he doesn't create scenarios where the "we have no money" speech is done selectively. Giving his top employees pay raises behind closed door meetings creates divisions and gossip that we can do without.
11:04
right, because unions always are happy to put the "lay off 1/3 of the union" clause in when they renegotiate their contract.
Why do the AV supporters and staff continually blame everything on Hahn? The campaign is over. Hahn lost. You won. Shut up. Take some responsibility for your dynamic candidate.
Working 24/7? You bet, on his next campaign. Will it be governor or Vice President of the United States of America? Oh what choices he has. If he's working 247, it's to protect his own interests and not those of the whole city. He only concentrates on certain voter bases and is always in campaign mode, which for some reason the city of L.A. finds charming. Who needs to roll up their sleeves and do real work? He's got "his people" to do that for him. He has ribbons to cut and photo ops to take advantage of.
Renegotiate the contracts. That would be the real "leadership" way to handle it.
Let's not even start on the school. Let's see if his charm extends to all of those little city's that are part of LAUSD who didn't vote for Villaraigosa and don't want him to take over.
Hurray, let's hear it for the Pro-Labor Mayor of Los Angeles. He's going to turn this town in to a union town again, just like San Francisco. Oh wait, do engineers qualify as labor? Did these guys donate to my or my minion's campaigns? Are these guys smarter than Martin Ludlow?
Ludlow and Villaraigosa, just a little black guy and a little mexican guy FOR BIG WHITE LABOR! Just like Miguel was. Can't have your cake and eat it too, Antonio - or is that: can't go and come at the same time.
Keep tying up traffic guys. It really builds support for your cause.
Just like you keep tying up the Harbor Commission meetings with your bullshit Noel?
Tying up traffic is not as bad as turning off the lights.
Get rid of Ludlow Who's running the Federation ? Villabaoso by proxy using his Sambo puppet Ludlow.
Ludlow says he can't intervene with Villababoso for the EAA because of lobbying restrictions after leaving office. Now a few days ago he tells EAA that there might not be enough votes on The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor for them to sanction a strike and prevent other unions from crossing EAA picket lines. Looks like mammy boy Ludlow trying to save a cholo's ass. The price for helping Huizaraigosa keeps getting more, and more, expensive.
The other city unions should watch this play ouT because " THIS IS YOUR LIFE "
If the mayor did not allow that pay raise, would he have been able to help his candidates in the Council election?
One consistent fault that the mayor's critics have had on mayorsam is that they don't seem to look past the immediate scandal or potential scandal. If you were the mayor you'd have more to worry about than this week's airfare issue, or that week's union pay raise.
If you were the mayor, and you were planning on turning on some of your supporters, the next two years has just been set up as a window within which you can do it. If you're successful, when you need support in the future, you'll be building those relationships through your actions right now.
AV, and the democrats in CA, rely heavily on union support - but unions are only interested in serving their members. If you are going to honestly try and make things work better at LAUSD, you have to work in the public's best interest. This can put you in direct conflict with unions. Therefore, you will need some new lines of support. Therefore, when it is safest, you cut ties with some labor interests and find new places to shop your influence.
Where/who will the mayor look to for support?
I think the building industry is the most logical place for L.A. politicians to look for campaign cash. Density bonuses, expediting, and help with filing for subsidies and entitlement are all carrots that they can dangle for support.
L.A. is going to get a lot more vertically built out. If you don't hitch your wagon to that rising star, you're going to be scrambling for money and supporters (because union relationships will make you look anti-reform).
anon 11:55 - "sambo" and "mammy boy" why the racist epithets?
i expect to see some crazy rants on a blog but that is too much.
anon 11:55 should serioiusly consider taking a class on anger management or visit a therapist.
11:55
If what you say is true, Ludlow's a phony and no friend of labor. I hope that's not the case.
If you are going to honestly try and make things work better at LAUSD, you have to work in the public's best interest. This can put you in direct conflict with unions.
Not really. Nothing is more costly to the public than a disgruntled worker. When you are in perpetual conflict with unions, you are making sure that inefficiencies rule the day.
This is not to say that every politician has to appease unions. But every politician owes to them enormous measures of respect. Unions may not be what they were, but they recently made one of the formerly most popular politicians in the state (Arnold) wet his speedos. The LATimes wasn't able to do that much.
You can negotiate aggressively with unions. But completely dis the unions and pay a big price.
Hahn lost; Villaraigosa won.
Pacheco lost; Villaraigosa won.
Pacheco lost; Cooley won.
Pacheco lost; Huizar won.
Is anyone else seeing a trend here?
Get over it guys, the elections are over and Antonio is The Man.
10:22 am
I agree with you. Antonio seems to screw a lot of people: lobbyists, exgirlfriends, former members of the CA Assembly, etc. But he never screws over Angelenos. And that's why I like him. And thus far, he's done an excellent job. Now he's not perfect (who is?) but in his first 5 months of office, he's gotten a lot more done and solved a lot more problems than Hahn did in 4 years. And he has deftly handled most of the labor disputes and gotten them resolved. Antonio is far from a genius but he gets the job done.
10:22 what planet are you living on? Antonio is going on his what 7 month and you tell me what he's done. Pushed for the Orange Line and how many accidents where I'm sure the city will be sued over. Another one yesterday. Found $50 mil for homeless but his promise for $$$$ for more cops 0. Antonio has set up the city for these protests from all the unions cause he didn't have the leadership to reneogiate the DWP pay raise cause they donated to him and now we're in for a rough ride with unions, and the list goes on...Wake up.. He doesn't screw Angelenos, ask CD14 and I'm sure you'll get a different answer
Anon 11:45 AM, 12/7:
Wait for it, it's just going to get better.
8:45 am, your right!!! Antonio did screw the 14th district!!!
He screwed it so bad, that he received almost 75% of the vote to win Mayor, and his choice to replace him on the City Council served an ass whoopin' to 9 other candidates by taking them down in the 1st round!
Yeah, that sounds about right.
"Equal pay for equal work!!!"
Curious that all those voices opposed to EAA members at least matching the IBEW contract provision which indexes salaries to inflation, don't apply the same standard to elected officials. Their salaries are totally tied to inflation.
And, how about at least a whine for those budget categories which are never told "there is no money," such as the police and the subsidies for large real estate projects, as well as prison construction, the Pentagon, the Iraq war, and the high eschelon federal tax cuts.
AV has no trouble accepting big raises for himself. Excerpts from a 3/16/99 Times article:
A state commission that gave major raises to top California officials and legislators last year handed another 7.5% to 15% to the Legislature's top six leaders Monday.
As of Dec. 6, the pay of Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco) will jump from $99,000 to $113,850 a year, a raise of 15%...
In addition to their salaries, legislators get $121 a day tax-free for living expenses. Typically during a nine-month session, that totals about $30,000...
Villaraigosa, a father of four, said he will accept the approved raise. He said the commission merely restored a policy that recognizes the extra responsibilities of leadership with "modest" additional compensation...
Wake up, L.A.....
You have a two faced, illiterate, phony beaner in office.
9:58 a.m.
You CAN fool some of the people all the time.
AV's been in city politics for 3 years; phony charm wears off.
It is already.
"boohoo. Oh no, it's not fair. It's not fair. DWP this. IBEW that. Not fair boohoo." Yeah? Boo-freaking-hoo. Cry me a river. News flash, life is NOT fair.
The mayor has offered 6.5% over the next 3 years. Take it, sit down and shut up. I hated the disparity and knew that it is always going to be a fact of life. SO, do something about it for yourself instead of complaining like little b*tches and waiting around for someone to do it for you.
Take charge of your own lives, be proactive. I researched and interviewed for DWP and got in and I was not the only one who did so. I was sick and tired of waiting around for "a snowball chance in hell" fight for parity.
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