22,000 L.A. Workers Win Pact with City that Saves Jobs—and More Bargaining News
Some 22,000 Los Angeles workers win pact with city that prevents layoffs—and more bargaining news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
Multiple, City of Los Angeles: The Los Angeles City Council on Friday approved a pact with the Los Angeles Coalition of City Unions, a group made up of AFL-CIO and Change to Win unions and representing 22,000 city workers. The agreement avoids layoffs and furloughs and will save the city more than $77 million by offering an early retirement plan, reducing the number of hours worked and postponing pay raises until after 2011. A deal with the Los Angeles Police Protective League/IUPA also was approved Friday and will save the city $63 million.
2,000 City Workers Ratify Pact with Milwaukee—and More Bargaining News
AFSCME members ratified a new contract with the city of Milwaukee, and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 1,200 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
SETTLEMENTS
AFSCME, City of Milwaukee: Members of AFSCME Council 48 ratified a new contract with the city of Milwaukee. The 2,000 city employees agreed to a pay freeze for 2010 and 2011 in return for a no-layoff guarantee.
San Francisco’s Public Option a Model for America’s Health Care Reform
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Steve Smith, director of communications at the California Labor Federation, highlights a real-life example of public option at work.
For most working families, the idea of a health care public option is just a notion. But in San Francisco, it’s reality. And it works.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney joined San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, California Labor Federation Executive Secretary-Treasurer Art Pulaski and San Francisco Labor Council Executive Director Tim Paulson at City Hall yesterday to urge Congress to pass health care reform with a strong public option, touting the success of the city’s universal health care system.
The “Healthy San Francisco” program, which was passed with critical support from labor, is a one-of-a-kind example of a public option of health insurance. Low-income workers are able to access subsidized health insurance while those with higher incomes are given an option to buy into a public health insurance option at reduced costs than they would face in the private market.
Dockworkers Ask: Are Your Union Pension Funds Safe?
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| Too many fat cats trying to steal workers’ pensions. |
Jennifer Sargent, Northwest communications coordinator at the ILWU, sent us this from San Francisco.
In the current economic free fall, it’s wise to know where your pension funds are invested and whether they are as safe as you’d think. Union leaders of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and other union leaders are warning unions about a scheme that cost 60,000 Dutch dockworkers more than $1.7 billion in pension funds that had nothing to do with a sinking economy—and everything to do with a corporate sleight-of-hand.
To highlight the issue, more than 100 international protesters from labor and community groups rallied Jan. 12 at San Francisco’s landmark Transamerica Pyramid building. Union leaders from the ILWU, Teamsters and the Dutch dockworkers’ union FNV slammed the alleged looting of more than 60,000 Dutch dockworkers’ pension benefits by Dutch insurance giant Aegon, the parent company of Transamerica. The big corporation recently launched a plan to collect a huge hunk of cash from U.S. taxpayers under the bailout program but suddenly dropped the scheme last month.
