Redding Mayor Wants More Permanent Concessions

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

REDDING - Mayor Rick Bosetti is hoping to win money- saving contract concessions in city employee retirement and health care coverage by asking voters to approve ballot measures to further trim Redding’s ailing budget. Bosetti’s ideas will be discussed at tonight’s City Council meeting, though council members will not vote on the proposal.

The city has cut nearly $13.7 million from its general fund over the past two years to bring spending in line with declining revenues. In September, officials learned sales tax revenues dropped 23 percent in the spring compared with the year before, 9 percent lower than projected, causing a budget gap of $350,000. Several unions have since conceded raises and agreed to furloughs to keep jobs in place and department doors open, but Bosetti said he wants more.

The first measure would require employees to pay their own contributions to their California Public Employees’ Retirement System accounts. Currently, the city pays both the employee and the employer contributions, according to a staff report. Bosetti said the city cannot afford to continue on the same course, but labor negotiations didn’t yield that concession. “I think there’s no doubt that at some point we have to find a mechanism that results in that,” Councilman Dick Dickerson said. “We can’t continue doing what we have been.”

Another area Bosetti proposes to change is employee retirement health care coverage, which represents an estimated liability of $85 million to $95 million, he said.  Instead of the current system, which subsidizes 50 percent of a retiree’s health care premiums indefinitely so long as the retiree worked for the city at least five years, Bosetti proposes a tiered system where the amount subsidized increases with the number of years worked for the city, he said.  “If there is consensus to look at doing this, we need to get staff direction on what to come up with for the ballot,” Bosetti said. Councilwoman Mary Stegall said she agrees with the idea of employees paying their own retirement contribution but doesn’t think a ballot initiative is the way to go.

“It seems to me that’s what we do as a City Council in our negotiations, not what we ask the voter to choose,” she said. Stegall questioned the amount of money it would take to put a measure on the ballot and said she needed to know more details about the proposal. Dickerson said a complete analysis of the amount of money involved in pensions would be necessary before he could decide on whether a ballot measure would be appropriate. “I am not convinced that all the intricacies are something that can be put on a ballot measure,” Dickerson said. “It’s complicated.”

Reporter Amanda Winters can be reached at 225-8372 .

Monterey Member Picnic a Success

Monday, October 05, 2009

Monterey - The Annual member picnic was a success. Members from a variety of units attended. Business Manager Chris Darker and six UPEC Staff attended the annual event on Saturday. “These events are important to our staff. It gives them an opportunity to meet with members and their families informally and get to know each other better”, said Darker. UPEC Staff volunteered to attend the event and most travelled from the Redding area early Saturday morning to attend. Members and their children played in the bounce house or played volleyball. Thanks to all who attended and participated.

UPEC Fall Newsletter Mailed

Thursday, October 01, 2009

REDDING HQ - Members can look forward to their fall newsletter in the next few days. UPEC Staff prepared the newsletter and included a copy of UPEC’s new brochure and information on the website and our new Facebook location. The newsletter includes highlights from the past year about what the local has been doing for the membership and the local. Communication has been a top priority for Business Manager Chris Darker and the Executive Board. “We are continuing to expand our communication in different ways to reach all our members on a platform they use”, said Darker. The local uses the website as the main source of communication with local members and has been incorporating Facebook over the past few weeks.

SRMC LVN-Tech Unit Rejects Contract Offer

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

REDDING - The LVN and Technical unit for Shasta Regional Medical Center met with Labor Negotiators tonight to review the latest offer from SRMC Management. Managements proposal was unanimously rejected. UPEC has decided to coordinate with the Service Employees International Union SEIU to mount a pressure campaign for a fair contract. Business Manager Chris Darker stated “this is a poor excuse for a contract with profit for Prime and Poverty for workers”. 

UPEC Objects to 36 Hour Work Week in Glenn County

WILLOWS - The Glenn COunty Board of Supervisors tried to pass a 36 hour work week on Tuesday, September 29th while union members and department heads looked on. The idea of changing the work week from 40 to 36 hours appeared late last week in an effort to balance the County General Fund. The Board had removed the idea of the 36 hour work week when they determined they had an obligation to notify the union bargaining units with a 14 day notice. Should the County implement a shorter work week, employees would see a 10% cut in pay and benefits effective October 18, 2009 and a change in work schedule to four-nine hour shifts with Wednesday off according to the County Resolution.
UPEC Bargaining units have met with County Administrators 4-5 times each and offered concessions prior to the latest reduced hours idea. The Board of SUpervisors has turned down those offers by the union.
Business Manager Chris Darker appeared before the Board on behalf of the UPEC Represented bargaining units requesting that the five Board members hold a Special Meeting to hear from UPEC Bargaining Unit Leaders and members to discuss how best to resolve the financial shortfall. “We believe that the people who are being personally and Financially impacted be afforded the time to have their concerns heard, their suggestions fully explained and considered” said Darker. Darker suggested October 6 or 8th but the entire Board was not available and both settled for Tuesday, October 13th at 1:00 PM.
The meeting continued for another hour over discussion of the reduced work week and contingency funds during which time Darker asked to again address the Board. “Yesterday, I advised County Personnel and the County Administrator that the union believes that changing the work week from 40 to 36 hours is a violation of our UPEC Contracts and we have referred this to our legal team”, said Darker. Darker mentioned the legal issue because he hadn’t heard it come up in the conversation or motion to pass the budget. “I guess it was just another detail that wasn’t passed on to the board and felt it might help them with their decision”, said Darker.
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The County finally did adopt a budget with a vote of 3-2 yesterday afternoon but the issue of layoffs and reducing the workweek hang in the balance.

Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Whitman Calls For Elimination of 40,000 Jobs

Friday, September 25, 2009

On Tuesday, multi-millionaire and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman officially announced her candidacy for governor of California. During her speech, she unequivocally stated that if elected, she intends to lay off 40,000 state workers and impose at least $15 billion in state budget cuts.

California certainly can’t afford another excessively wealthy and out-of-touch governor who thinks cutting jobs and services is the right move for our state. Tell us what you think about Meg’s disastrous plan for California on our Facebook page or on Twitter.

Join the discussion at http://tinyurl.com/yccxach or tag your post on Twitter #CAGov2010

California Labor Federation