The Gospel According to DeLord
News Update September 21, 2012
By Ron DeLord
The aftermath of the Chicago teachers strike is yet to be determined, but perhaps the Chicago Teachers Union and the Mayor overplayed their hands and made the debate public, nasty and personal. I would predict no winners. It is my opinion that in this political and economic climate public sector unions need to stay under the radar if at all possible.
Fights with the city, county or state over minor issues need to be delayed until another day. Concentrate on preserving all of your wages, benefits and pensions. Being realistic is more important that being right.
We are in a long term transition and we need to be focused on making decisions that lay a framework for the next generation of officers, The fight to survive has just started.
I am continuing to experiment with presentation of articles and commentary. In this News Update I posted the article and highlighted key comments and points but in a random cut and paste. Many people are looking to see what is of interest to them and they do not need the entire article. If you want to read the entire article please click on Read More. Denver Police Contract Negotiations Break Down
Denver Negotiations Fall Apart
CBS News 4 has learned that negotiations for a new contract for Denver police officers have fallen apart with no deal reached, leading to binding arbitration which began Tuesday and is expected to last into next week.
The current contract between Denver police and the city expires on Dec. 31.
One contact said the two sides were eyeing a multi-year deal for Denver’s nearly 1,500 uniformed officers, but disagreements arose over potential raises along with seniority issues and work hours. The source says that police negotiators were asking for a raise in at least one of the years of the new deal.
Unable to cobble together a new collective bargaining agreement, an independent arbitrator began hearing from both sides this week. That arbitrator will listen to arguments from both sides and decide which proposal will be accepted as the new contract between the city and police. The arbitrator’s decision will be final and cannot be disputed or appealed.
While police were angling for a raise, it’s no secret that the city has been looking for cuts. The city has said it faces a $94 million budget shortfall next year and an ongoing structural deficit of about $30 million per year.
Denver firefighters agreed to accept $6 million in cuts over the next three years during their recent contract negotiations. The firefighters union agreed to no raises next year and 1 percent raises in 2014 and 2015. They also agreed to give up their $550 per employee uniform cleaning and maintenance allowance for 2013 and 2014.
But police negotiations have proved more problematic leading to a breakdown and the binding arbitration process.
Chicago Mayor Set To Shift Focus To Police, Fire, Transit Union Contracts
CHICAGO (CBS) – With the two-week trauma of the Chicago teachers’ strike now behind him, Mayor Rahm Emanuel has turned his attention to other labor challenges ahead.
Police officers, firefighters, and transit workers are all either in contract talks, or getting ready to start negotiations.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine looked into how the outcome of the teachers’ strike might affect other public employees.
Perception is sometimes more important than reality, and if the perception is the teachers gained by taking a hard line and hitting the picket lines, even if Emanuel ended up getting most of what he wanted, other public employees might be tempted to take the same approach as the teachers.
“I actually think this strike is going to embolden other unions to take the mayor on,” said John Tilmon, CEO of the Illinois Policy Institute, a conservative think-tank.
But the firefighters’ situation is somewhat different. They perform what’s described by state law as “essential services,” and aren’t allowed to strike.
Neither are police – whose negotiations are expected to be the most difficult – nor transit workers, who might be closer to either agreement or impasse than either of the public safety unions.
Read online. Miami-Dade asks employee unions to approve redesigned health-insurance plan
A contentious healthcare concession imposed earlier this year on Miami-Dade's nearly 26,000 county employees will almost certainly be history Thursday night after commissioners sign off on a new budget.
But the county won't be done wrestling with rising healthcare costs.
Mayor Carlos Gimenez's administration has warned employee unions that, beginning Jan. 1, health-insurance premiums for their dependents, such as spouses and children, will rise 20 percent. The hikes could be avoided, the administration says, if the unions agree to "redesign" the health-insurance plan to raise co-pays for doctor visits and prescription drugs.
Under the most popular plan the county offers, the co-pay to see a primary-care doctor would increase to $15 from $10. The co-pay to see a specialist would rise to $30 from $10. And a 30-day supply of prescription drugs would go up to $15 from $10.
The alternative for that same plan: hiking bi-weekly premiums for family coverage to $345 from $288.
Under either scenario, the county would continue paying HMO premiums for its employees.
Regardless of what happens with the insurance plans, employees will likely get some good news: When the new budget year begins Oct. 1, they will probably no longer be required to contribute an additional 4 percent of their base pay toward healthcare costs. A narrow majority of commissioners imposed that concession in January, on top of the 5 percent of their pay that employees already contribute toward healthcare.
That 20 percent comprises a nearly 12-percent increase in healthcare costs last year and an 8 percent increase this year. The county agreed not to raise premiums last year -- but that was a one-year deal, Gimenez said. Now, the county needs to make up for that by passing along last year's and this year's higher costs to employees, in the form of 20-percent dependent premium hikes.
"The single people will be subsidizing the family premiums, which I don't really see that there's a fairness there," Blackman said. The police union has yet to tell the county if it will bring the proposal to a vote. Police Benevolent Association President John Rivera said the union has asked the county for more information to verify its healthcare cost estimates.
"We walked out of there with more questions than answers," Rivera said of the PBA's meeting with the county's healthcare consultants. "If we're satisfied with what we get, we will certainly let the members make the choice."
LA Mayor Villaraigosa Defends Pension Reform Plan Against Union Opposition
LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa began his push for city pension reform Wednesday. The city of LA is trying to reduce its pension obligation by cutting benefits for new employees. Conan Nolan reports for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Sept. 19, 2012.
Even as city worker unions threatened to sue over a Los Angeles pension reform plan for unveiled this week, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa defended his administration's proposal.
The plan, which would move the retirement age for new workers from 55 to 65 and would reduce the amount of final compensation, would save taxpayers up to $4 billion over 30 years, the mayor said.
The "common-sense plan" is "the next step of putting Los Angeles back toward a more sustainable, long-term fiscal path," Villaraigosa said.
The plan includes:
capping the maximum retirement benefit at 75 percent of final compensation, instead of the 100 percent currently allowed;
limiting cost-of-living increases to 2 percent;
increasing employee contributions to benefits;
eliminating retiree health care benefits for dependents; and
using a three-year average to calculate benefits to prevent pension "spiking."
Additionally, benefit amounts currently calculated at 2.16 percent of salary times the number of years worked would be reduced to a 2 percent rate.
"Every dollar that we save on pensions today is a dollar that we can spend on other city services," Englander said.
City unions have been quick opposed to the proposal, with a court fight not out of the question.
"This proposed ordinance is unsound and unlawful," said Service Employees International Union Local 721 President Bob Schoonover. "It's a full embrace of the CAO's vacuous plan to create a second tier in city worker pensions, which is a frontal attack on all city workers, future and present."
Ron DeLord has more than 40 years of service as a police union official at the local and state level. He is recognized as one of the leading police union contract negotiators in the United States. He has negotiated more than 150 police contracts. Ron is the co-author of six published books - two on police power, politics and confrontation, two on interested-based bargaining, and two on the history of Texas Lawmen. He has been on the guest faculty at the Harvard Law School since 1993 for the Harvard Trade Union Program and two Police Union Leadership Programs. He has conducted more than 50 seminars on public sector union leadership, power, organization, media and political action.
Ronald G. DeLord PLLC Attorney at Law
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