Business Manager’s Report

Be Prepared for Possibly Long, Tough Negotiations

By Brian D’Arcy, Business Manager, Local 18

It seems like it is an every-three-year dance. Our contract with the Department of Water & Power is nearing its end and we are not getting down to the very serious business of new negotiations early enough.

Our contract expires on September 30. Usually, by now, we have begun preliminary bargaining and a “feeling out” process with management. So far, that has not happened this year. True, there is a new General Manager at DWP, and, true, City departments do not file their proposed budgets with the Mayor and city council until April. But it is equally true that we do not want to wait until the last minute—or even until the “dog days” of summer—in order to get meaningful discussions under way. Nothing is more important to our dedicated, hard-working members than a new three-year contract which gives them the wages, benefits and respect they deserve.

Our credo remains the same: no contract, no work. This is how it was in 1993, when we were forced to strike for nine days, and this is how it is today. We are not threatening, we are simply expressing our desire to sit down with management and craft a new agreement. There are a number of City committees through which any new contract must pass, including Personnel and Executive Employment Relations, and, of course, the Mayor’s office and city council. This process takes time, and the sooner we sit down and exchange ideas and priorities, the sooner we will have a contract to bring to you.

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The “Terminator” Show His True Colors

Call it a remake of “True Lies”. “Governator” Arnold has a hit list—and working people and families—along with students, the poor, and those dependent on the state for medical and welfare assistance—seem to be prominently placed on it. We reviewed his assault on public employees’ pensions and the state legislature. Now, I would like to expand on the possible pension crisis—and note some more ways he appears to have it in for us.

Bottom line: this man is no friend of labor and working families. He cares little about the issues that are important to us on a day-to-day basis. Don’t let his smile, movie-star charisma and “charm” fool you: this man is in thick with his corporate buddies, he is ambitious, and he is more than willing to sacrifice our interests to further theirs’—and his own.

Assaulting the pensions of public-sector employees

Last month, I noted how the “governator” is attempting to destroy the state’s public employees pension system. Instead of the tried and true guaranteed fixed benefit (pension), he proposes a two-tier retirement/pension system. Starting in 2007, new public-sector employees would have to contribute money into a 401(k)-style retirement account, with a choice of investment funds. The state would also put money into this fund. The payments for retirees—their pensions—would then be based on how well their investments did.

As noted, this is a risky plan, one that would cost millions of dollars, even as it would make the entire pension system far less efficient than it is now. It is a huge, needless gamble! Not that this would stop Governor Arnold, who is hell-bent on placing his “pension reform” on the November ballot. Spurred on by his big-business cronies, who are kicking in millions of dollars, this anti-working people cabal is trying to get signatures to qualify the initiative. Never mind that this very unnecessary and divisive election will cost the state $50 million—money that certainly could be better spent on people’s real needs.

Worse, this entire pension raid is nothing more than a state-level version of President Bush’s equally ill-conceived federal assault on Social Security. Both the “governator” and the President are demonstrating a new and very mean mentality: soak working people, shred their hard-earned safety net, and let corporate America reap the profits. The assault on the state’s pension plan is our battle philosophically, and the proposed raid on Social Security is our fight literally!

Gutting funding for public education

It turns out that the “governator’s” teflon may finally be showing some holes. He has blatantly reneged on a very public fiscal deal that he made last year with educators. He pledged to restore billions of dollars for education if schools and teachers agreed to let him take that money to balance last year’s budget. They did, but guess what: the “governator” went back on that public promise and has not restored the desperately needed funding for our children in this year’s budget! In a word, he lied to teachers, students and all Californians. Who will take his word in future budgetary—or other—dealings? Would you?

Establishing a pro-corporate, anti-union, anti-working people atmosphere in Sacramento

Our “governator” is in corporate America’s hip pocket. He is pushing forward with radical and unsound plans that essentially are designed to take money from the pockets of working people and re-distribute it to big business. His agenda, such as it is, caves into big business at every turn. His legislative actions and veto pen demonstrate that his sympathies lie with the corporate fat cats who are throwing millions of dollars at him—not with the people of the state, many of whom voted for him, thinking he was a “different” kind of “citizen-politician.” He isn’t!

Are people beginning to catch on?

Initially, many Californians were “star struck” by Governor Arnold, but the bloom is beginning to come off the vine: recent polls show his disapproval rating rising, as more and more Californians realize that not only is he not a “new kind of politician,” he has become the worst of any kind of elected official: continually raising money, ignoring people’s needs, plunging the state deeper into debt, shilling for corporate special interests, and lying to people and organizations to whom he had given his word. The good news is that Democratic leaders in the State Assembly and Senate are gearing up to oppose the “governator’s” more reckless proposals. They are standing by their commitment to working people and families, and will use their legislative majorities to stifle as many of Herr “Terminator’s” misguided proposals as possible. I will keep you informed on this important fight.

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Bill Rosendahl for Los Angeles City Council – 11 th District

In the open 11 th City Council District, college educator and local television talk-show moderator Bill Rosendahl, a strong and vocal supporter of organized labor and working families, is running to replace termed-out incumbent Cindy Miscikowski.

Bill has been a particularly good friend of IBEW Local 18, often allowing me valuable air time on his closely watched interview program, “Week in Review,” to articulate our agenda and the point of view of our Union. He is a proven friend and will be a strong advocate for us on the City Council. Bill Rosendahl unequivocally deserves the support and vote of every union member, family, friend and neighbor in the 11 th City Council District!

In unity,

BRIAN D’ARCY, Business Manager