City To Examine New Guidelines For Dealing With Labor Negotiations!

http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2005/09/antonio_thinking_asia.html

Just before the passage of the highly controversial five year labor pact with the DWP union, Controller Laura Chick and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, announced a study of the city's labor negotiation procedures; procedures, I might add, that led to this contract being initiated, negotiated and voted on without the public knowing the process had started or having any meaningful input on even the basic framework of the original offer to the union before the start of negotiations. I assume the study will also examine evaluations standards in determining the sizes of future wage hikes or decreases and other contract provisions. From www.laobserved.com:

* Working together: Villaraigosa and Controller Laura Chick announced today a joint "comprehensive review and reform of the CityÂ’s labor negotiation policies and practices." They are throwing some money toward Sjoberg, Evashank and Associates and the Cornell University Industrial Relations School to do the work. 3:50 p.m.

Ironically, in public comment at the start of today's council session, I asked for the same thing. So let's hope that the NC's will be involved in this process from the very beginning.