New Units Get Good Raises;
Tough Bargaining Ahead With Mayor?
By Brian D’Arcy, Business Manager, Local 18
There is news to report concerning the Department of Water & Power and next year’s upcoming negotiations with City Hall.
Salary Hikes for our New Units
I am pleased to report the new members of the IBEW Local 18 family—the men and women from the Technical, Professional, Administrative, and Supervisory Technical and Professional Units—have recently won a one-year 5% salary increase (along with 4% for two years retroactively for the Supervisory Technical Unit), effective October 1, 2004. Congratulations all around to our unit business representatives and our new members who assisted them on our negotiating teams.
Their well-deserved salary hike was approved by the Los Angeles City Council on a 10-2 vote, with only councilmen Greig Smith and Bernard Parks failing to support us. It is unfortunate that these two members seem to regard the Department of Water & Power’s skilled Professional Technical, Administrative, and Supervisory and Professional Unit personnel as unworthy of a reasonable salary increase.
Tough Sledding Ahead Next Year at City Hall?
As you know, our contract with the Department expires in 2005. We, of course, will likely be engaged in long and strenuous bargaining with DWP and City Hall in the months leading up to that date. In seeking a new three-year agreement, your negotiating team will, as always, work hard in order to secure the best-possible salary, benefits and pension protections.
Might our contract goals run into interference at City Hall? Maybe. One can never be sure just how the political winds will be blowing a year from now, and one cannot always guess how some of the key public officials might be thinking then, but it is best to be prepared. But I will state this: no contract, no work. By comparison, SEIU recently settled with the City for 0, 2, 2, and 2.25% over four years.
The overall state of the economy certainly will be a factor. If the local and regional economy is sound, it will be hard for management to reject reasonable salary increases. If, however, the economy is weak or uncertain, then be prepared for the politicians and bureaucrats to throw that in our faces. Local 18 will be seeking parity with the National Municipal Utility Wage Increase.
An off-shoot of the economy will be City budget considerations and constraints. It is hard, today, to gauge what municipal leaders—with or without a new mayor in office—will regard as priority spending (on projects and personnel, for example). We, of course, have our own views, and will make them very clear during negotiations.
Finally, the make-up of the City Council could be pivotal. Along with the mayor, members of the council will be the main political players in our talks. More than half of the City Council seats (eight out of 15 members) are up for election or re-election next spring. As always, our Union is affected by the views and politics of our local public officials.
Stay tuned—and informed. We may be heading into uncharted and choppy waters.
City Council Honors Local 18
Los Angeles City Councilman Marvin Ludlow (10th District) presented Local 18 with a resolution from both the State of California and the City at our July 20, 2004 Executive Board meeting (see photo). It thanked us for “striving to meet the objectives of the IBEW, to organize all workers in the utilities industry, to reduce the hours of daily labor, to secure adequate pay for the work, and to seek a higher and higher standard of living. The Los Angeles City Council, along with the Mayor, City Attorney and City Controller, applaud the efforts of IBEW Local 18 for raising the standard of living for its members and for the rest of the working families in the City of Los Angeles.”
Owens Valley
Through the years, the DWP’s stewardship of the vast and beautiful Owens Valley generally have been quite productive and positive.
The problem has always been the balancing of municipal and people needs (water/energy) versus the preservation of the wild, largely unspoiled environment of the Valley. DWP has done a good job of balancing these sometime-competing priorities, and it should continue its supervision of, and responsibility for, this very valuable land. Concerning the care and use of the Owens Valley, Local 18 continues to support the stewardship of the Department of Water & Power.
The Fleishman-Hillard Fiasco
In recent weeks, Angelenos have been treated to a production of the theater of the absurd.
To recap: the Department of Water & Power—with it own in-house staff of more than 20 public-relations staffers—has been shelling out millions of dollars to Fleishman-Hillard, a big-time, high -powered p.r. firm. Why, exactly?
If DWP staff can’t tout its own achievements and agenda, how will forking over buckets of the public’s money to an outside p.r. firm improve communications? Why should a very politically connected company charge the City of Los Angeles—and, by extension, DWP rate payers—an obscene amount of money to do what the Department’s own people should be able to do?
Especially when, for example, Fleishman-Hillard billed DWP $180/hour to have an intern clip local newspapers. Or, when company executives ate and entertained high on the hog at the Department’s expense. The billing records and other revelations recently revealed by the Los Angeles Times and past Fleishman employees detail a web of back-room deals, sweetheart contracts, and over-billing.
And for what? To urge DWP to supply 20% of its power by renewable (green) sources by 2017? The Department’s own people couldn’t get this message out? Why pay out millions of dollars when appropriate staff resources already are in-house and represented by IBEW Local 18?
The entire Fleishman-Hillard fiasco is an affront to the public, has wasted precious money best spent elsewhere, and undermined people’s faith in both the Department and City government.
In unity,
BRIAN D’ARCY, Business Manager