[quote=livinincali]They say a picture is worth a thousand words so here’s my point in a nice little chart. The problem of 2 different exponents growing at different rates. If this weren’t reality then we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
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Where is your chart coming from? Link?
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Concessions:
For one thing, many/most municipal employers began phasing out retiree healthcare in the mid-90s. This was a HUGE concession on the part of labor unions. I know many union members in different positions, departments, cities, etc., and almost all of them have been making concessions.
The Colton City Council will be asked March 1 to ratify terms of a labor contract with police officers, apparently ending months of often bitter negotiations.
The Colton Police Officers Association issued a news release earlier this month announcing that its members had agreed to take 13 percent pay cuts “to avoid layoffs of police officers and staff.”
City Council members met in closed session Tuesday to finalize negotiations, but City Manager Rod Foster announced afterward that it would take time to prepare “all the necessary resolutions” for council approval.
He and council members thanked the police union for what Foster termed “significant concessions that their union membership approved by a very wide margin.”
More than three-quarters of SEIU Local 1000 employees who voted have ratified a labor agreement worked out with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, union officials said this afternoon.
“Still, the the deal angered some state workers. It accepts 12 unpaid days off over the next 12 months on top of the nine furlough days imposed on employees from August through October of this year. The contract also increases the percentage of wages that employees contribute to their retirement and sets lower pension benefit formulas for new hires.
On December 14, teachers in California’s West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) narrowly passed a contract that includes a pay freeze, larger class sizes and a sharp cut in health care benefits.
The WCCUSD includes several cities in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, including Richmond, Hercules, Pinole, El Cerrito, San Pablo and parts of El Sobrante and Kensington. The district had insisted on concessions to help close a deficit of about $16 million.
A teachers union that has been reluctant to make concessions in the past gave big at the negotiating table this week – agreeing to pay cuts, higher medical co-pays, furlough days and the suspension of an annual bonus.
OCEANSIDE — Unions representing Oceanside Fire Department employees have agreed to concessions in hopes of saving three positions eliminated during recent budget cutbacks.
ESCONDIDO — For the first time in Escondido’s history, a labor union has agreed to forgo pension contributions made by the city.
The concession came from the Escondido Firefighters Association, whose 85 members will pay all pension contributions for this year and next, the duration of a new contract that the City Council approved this week. In addition, the union agreed to give up 46 of 138 hours of holiday pay.
The Poway Unified teachers’ union became the second in the county to approve pay cuts in an effort to avoid layoffs, reported the Union-Tribune. The Poway Federation of Teachers agreed to a 2.7 percent pay cut in exchange for five fewer workdays over the next two years. About 69 percent of union members voted for the rollback.
