First in a series
Negotiating a new labor union contract is not like a baseball game where, after the final inning, the score is 5 to 3, and the team with 5 is declared the unflinching winner.
Much cloudier is the outcome of the Culver City Management Group’s new two-year, two-tiered contract, unanimously ratified last night by the City Council.
The deal is replete with changes — as in rollbacks — that are expected to redound through the prickly bargaining season with the other 5 City Hall labor unions.
It was probably entirely appropriate that the Management Group settled ahead of all their brethren. They are the example-setters, and here is one way.
First, there is the appearance.
The main players look different. The Management Group is negotiating while wearing collars that are white not blue. They dress in trousers and neckties. Jeans are for others, not in their offices.
Reflecting nationwide trends in both public employee and private sector contract bargaining, the Management Group made significant retreats in half-dozen areas.
For that reason, a number of City Hall workers will be leaving before the present agreement expires on Dec. 31.
Union President Glenn Heald says four of his 58 members have declared their intention to leave because of severely narrowed benefits.
“I wouldn’t want to conjecture how many more,” he said, “because it is personal.
“Their decisions will not be driven by greed. It will be the opposite. It will be,
“‘Gosh, I would like to be able to, but can I afford I to because I am going to be in a lesser pension for the rest of my life than I had expected to be from all the years I worked? I had a contract. It said I will get a certain amount. Now I won’t.’”
Before further exploring the hills and dales of Management’s new deal, I asked Mr. Heald, a 15-year City Hall veteran, whether, as the leader of a rather unique union he felt more of a kinship with City Hall the institution or with other labor unions.
“We are management,” he said, “and we accept what comes with that. It’s the responsibility to understand the numbers. We help prepare budgets. We implement programs. We monitor, assess and analyze programs.
“So we have to understand the realities of the finances, whether they are to our benefit or to our detriment.”
(To be continued)
