Second of two parts
Re “From Labor’s Side, City Contract Talks Are Going Poorly”
In contrast to the city labor union member who yesterday spoke at length about how “poorly” bargaining talks are going with City Hall, the management side is far more reticent about delving into the exact state of months’-long talks centering on union concessions.
When a member of the management team was asked to assess the progress in give-back talks, he paused. And a second time.
“They…are…going…I mean I think…about as well as can be expected given the circumstances.”
So far, management has been scrupulously careful about not letting a single dollar leak about how much they are asking the first four of six city unions to give back.
When the management person was asked to describe some characteristics of the concessions being sought, he said:
“I don’t think I am supposed to.
“We are seeking concessions, and I am sure employee groups would characterize them as significant.
“I think everybody who reads the newspaper understands that in Culver City and the world that there is a problem. We are hopeful we can work together to address the problem as much as we can without resorting to more severe measures.
“At the end, we have two very simple options:
“Cut expenditures or raise revenue.
“Raising revenue means raising taxes, and I don’t think we feel comfortable with that, and I don’t think the public would support that at this time.
“When you look at expenditures, we are talking mostly about personnel (salaries) because we are a service business.
“If you are going to attack personnel costs, you are going to reduce compensation for everyone or you will have to reduce the workforce.
“That is as simple as it gets.”
