City labor talks hit the skids
Pasadena officials furlough staffers in what union calls ‘unnecessarily punitive’ retort
By Jake Armstrong 02/04/2010
Roughly 250 of the city staff’s supervisors and middle managers returned to work with shortened schedules this week, under a furlough city officials imposed on members of the Pasadena Management Association following a breakdown in labor talks with the union’s representatives.
Facing an $11 million budget gap, twice what was forecast six months ago, city negotiators have been trying to get the PMA to give up half of the 4 percent cost-of-living increases its members would receive both this year and next under their current contract. That would have saved about $2.8 million.
But those efforts ended when the 500-member union shot down the city’s proposal, said Karyn Ezell, the city’s human resources director. Instead, about half of the union’s members will have their workweeks reduced by four hours to 36, saving roughly the same $2.8 million, she said.
“We think the talks are concluded and they voted to reject the city’s proposal. But we’re always willing to listen,” Ezell said.
Some of the PMA’s reluctance to give up the raises under the city proposal is because the union’s members already agreed to forego a negotiated pay raise in 2009. A spokesman for the PMA called the furloughs an “unnecessarily punitive” burden on only part of its membership.
“Pasadena city officials continue to report that they have a citywide fiscal crisis, but only within half of one employee unit,” PMA spokesman Jeffrey Monical said in a written statement. “Apparently, all of the city’s deficit must be found and resolved from the paychecks of just a few workers.”
So far, the city officials have eliminated or stopped funding 68 positions citywide, kept many vacant and are hiring only for essential positions.
The furloughs affects employees across multiple city departments, so residents may notice some service disruptions in departments where PMA members directly interact with the public, such as planning and engineering, Ezell said.
Decisions on who would be furloughed were based on the risks or added cost of not having a supervisor on hand, she said. Some PMA members are in grant-funded positions, and the city could lose funds if their hours were cut.
Additionally, the city would have to hire someone to oversee workers performing dangerous work if their PMA-member supervisor’s hours were cut, she said.
“We really tried to be as evenhanded as we could,” Ezell said.
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Money for corruption but not for the honest worker. Please google Richard Fine to discover what is going on with our city taxes. While the government states we don't have money to pay workers they quietly pay $47k per year in bribes to many Superior Court judges. avivakbobb.com quietly removes herself from the bench months prior to being forced off. This judge killed for money, enforced false conservatorships and presided over other corrupt judges such as Candace J. Beason who is in Pasadena Probate court. Beason allows perjury and protects those who don't do their jobs.
NO money? Think again, the money is there but going to the wrong people, judges that lie and hide the truth from us all.